52 Curses
by Nidoking
Summary: A rogue Clow Card called JOKER, which possesses the powers of all 52 Clow Cards, is granting all of Tomoyo's wishes and causing no end of trouble in the process.
1. Tomoyo's Trying Magical Day

52 Curses

A Card Captor Sakura fanfic

Chapter 1: Tomoyo's Trying Magical Day

It was no more beautiful a day than any other to the ordinary citizens of the Tomoeda district of Tokyo. The sun was out, a cool breeze blew wherever the buildings didn't impede it, and the few clouds that dotted the sky were puffy and white and resembled various animals to those who cared to identify them by shape. But to a select few, there was one thing that made it the most beautiful day they had seen in well over a year... the threat of the Clow Cards was finally behind them. The fifty-two spirits, created by a powerful magician centuries in the past, were now a mere deck of magical cards in the possession of fifth-grader Sakura Kinomoto. Aided by the Guardian Beast, Kerberos (called Kero for short, since he spent most of his time in the body of a stuffed animal), Sakura had captured the cards one by one, gaining their power for use in the final test in which she proved once and for all that she was their rightful owner.

Among the precious few who knew of Sakura's magical exploits was her best friend Tomoyo Daidouji, who had been at Sakura's side for nearly every adventure, recording the action with her trusty video camera while Sakura captured each card, usually wearing a costume that Tomoyo herself had made. To Tomoyo, the successful capture of the Clow was a mixed blessing. True, life would be a lot less dangerous, and Sakura wouldn't be risking her life in battles against devastatingly powerful spirits; but all Tomoyo had left of those exciting times were her memories and nearly fifty hours of video. And her ongoing friendship with Sakura, of course. No amount of video could replace the real Sakura, but after so many shared near-death experiences, life just seemed a little boring, even with Sakura around.

But none of that worry touched Tomoyo's smile as she walked through the expansive garden that surrounded her family's mansion. To her, life was a precious thing to be enjoyed no matter how exciting or boring it might seem. All it took was a new outlook – in this case, looking forward to the chance to spend some quality time with Sakura, free of the pressure of capturing Clow Cards. Finally, they could be friends just like in the old days, content with nothing but each other's company. They hadn't seen each other that day because Tomoyo had had a dentist appointment in the morning, and when she'd returned home, no one had been at the Kinomoto residence to answer the phone. But Tomoyo was satisfied spending the day at home, knowing that she and Sakura would have the whole next day to be together.

The breeze blew between the hedges, barely permeating Tomoyo's light polka-dotted sundress. It was a nice sensation, reminding her of the school's trip to the beach the year before. The dress really did feel almost as revealing as a swimsuit, but was far more modest. Tomoyo closed her eyes to picture Sakura wearing it, twirling around to show it from all sides, laughing, wielding the Wand of Clow defiantly in the face of a Clow Card.... She sighed. No more Clow Cards meant no more battle costumes, and she hadn't had the nerve to ask Sakura to model any more clothes since. Yet she still had a closet full of unworn outfits tailored just to Sakura's body, and her fingers itched to make even more. And imagining Sakura wearing each one just wasn't enough. Sure, she felt great whenever Sakura was happy, but it was greater still if Sakura could be happy wearing the clothes that Tomoyo had made for her....

A sudden chill came over Tomoyo, and she pulled her dress tightly around herself, suddenly wishing that it provided a bit more coverage. The weather report that her mother had been watching that morning hadn't called for the temperature to fall so suddenly. Tomoyo felt herself shivering in the cold and cringed, pulling her arms in close to conserve heat. Why was it so cold?

Tomoyo turned toward the house, suddenly wanting more than anything else to be inside where it was warm. She could feel the warmth of a homemade fire, its hot glow pushing the cold away even though it was only her ever-vivid imagination. The cold seemed to drip right off her as she walked through the garden, almost so much that she began to feel uncomfortably hot. Suddenly, the thin sundress seemed confining, and she reached up to loosen the collar, only to find it drenched with her own sweat. Her hair was soaked, too, and the dress was beginning to turn transparent – and to take on an orange glow. That was when she heard the roar of the flames, and spun around to see the hedges that surrounded her ablaze from top to roots. She screamed and shrank from the flames as the automatic sprinklers turned on and began to spray the burning topiaries with water.

A pair of hands grabbed her by the waist and lifted her onto a shoulder, and she was suddenly on her very rapid way back to the house. Looking behind her, she could see the fire that had startled her from a respectable distance. It wasn't nearly as large as it had been at first, and as the sprinklers worked their magic, the flames dwindled and then died completely. Still, they had been high enough for a while that if she hadn't gotten away from them, she might have been badly burned. Tomoyo gave the bodyguard a grateful hug as she was carried through the back door and into the drawing room.

Her mother was upon her the instant she was set back on her feet, hugging her close and crying. "Oh, my dear Tomoyo! Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine, Mother," Tomoyo replied, still shivering even though she was no longer at all cold. "Miss Kazuya got me out of there before I could get hurt." And everything had happened so quickly....

Tomoyo's mother looked up at the bodyguard who had brought Tomoyo in. "Did you see who set the fire?"

"No, ma'am," replied Kazuya. "The rest of the security team is patrolling the perimeter. The second we find anything, you'll be the first to know."

"That's not good enough!" snapped Tomoyo's mother. "That arsonist almost killed my precious daughter! I want him dragged before me on his hands and knees, begging for mercy!"

"It's okay, Mother," whispered Tomoyo. "I wasn't hurt."

Mrs. Daidouji turned her attention back to Tomoyo. "Oh, my dear, sweet, brave daughter! I'll get whoever tried to hurt you and make them suffer for it, I promise you!"

Tomoyo forced a smile, hoping it was warm enough to calm her mother down. "Please don't make a fuss about it, Mother. I'm perfectly all right."

"You are not all right," her mother insisted. "There was a criminal not five meters away from you, in our very own home!" She glared at Kazuya. "What am I paying you people for, anyway?"

"Please don't blame the security team," urged Tomoyo. "I should have been paying attention."

"You shouldn't have to be responsible for your own safety, dear. You're only a child."

Tomoyo sighed. At times like this, there was no reasoning with her mother. The best way to deal with this sort of situation was to get far away and wait for her mother to get a hold of herself. "May I go to Sakura's house, Mother?" she asked.

Tomoyo's mother reeled as if in shock. "You most certainly may not! You're not to leave this house! Who knows what dangers might be lurking out there, waiting to snatch you up?"

"Please, Mother?" Tomoyo begged, glancing imploringly at Kazuya.

Kazuya cleared her throat and adjusted her sunglasses. "Ma'am, it might be best if we get Tomoyo off the premises until we find the culprit. She'll be safest in a public place."

Tomoyo's mother considered this. "Do you really think so?"

"The arsonist hasn't left the grounds yet," Kazuya reported. "If he's still inside the walls, then outside is the safest place for your daughter to be."

"All right," Mrs. Daidouji relented. "But not all the way to Sakura's house. I don't want you going any further than the park. Understand?"

"I won't let her out of my sight," replied Kazuya. "Shall we go, Tomoyo?"

"Yes, let's!" Tomoyo wrapped her arms around Kazuya's waist, and they left the room together.

Kazuya lifted her sunglasses to wink at Tomoyo as they entered the garage and climbed into the nearest car. Three other bodyguards joined them, and the chauffeur climbed into the driver's seat. "You'll have to be careful out there, Tomoyo. I'm sure your mother is overreacting to this incident, but I still think caution is best."

"There will be lots of people in the park," said Tomoyo. "Nothing will happen there."

"I hope not," replied Kazuya. "Your mother would have my head if anything happened to you, especially today. I assured her that you'd be safer outdoors, but I must say that I don't like the idea."

Tomoyo smiled. "I know you'll keep me safe." Kazuya nodded, and the chauffeur backed out of the garage, followed the driveway to the gate, and pulled out onto the road.

It was a short drive to the park, and Tomoyo found herself back in the open air within minutes. The four women surrounded her, eagle-sharp eyes peering through four pairs of sunglasses for the slightest sign of impending danger. However, most of the people in the park stayed far away from the group, leaving Tomoyo isolated and, for all intents and purposes, alone.

Fortunately, there were still a few friendly faces left. Tomoyo smiled as she caught sight of her classmates Chiharu Mihara and Takashi Yamazaki, together as always. "Chiharu! Yamazaki!" she called, waving to them. She started to run toward them, but a strong hand grabbed her shoulder and kept her in the middle of the group of bodyguards.

Seeing Tomoyo's plight, Chiharu ran toward Tomoyo, waving a friendly hello. "Tomoyo! What a surprise to see you here!" she said. "I thought you had a dentist appointment today!" She stared up at Tomoyo's bodyguards uneasily. "Who are these women, Tomoyo? They look like secret agents or something!"

Yamazaki bent down slightly to eye Kazuya's waist. She glared back at him, but remained otherwise as stoic as a British palace guard. "You know, real secret agents carry loaded guns in hip belts everywhere they go," he announced. "It's the law of secret agencies."

"That's not true!" protested Chiharu. "These women aren't wearing hip belts!"

"They're not really secret agents," Tomoyo pointed out. "They're my bodyguards."

"See?" Yamazaki asked triumphantly. "REAL secret agents always carry their guns, even in the shower." He straightened up and pointed a finger into the air as he always did when giving a not-quite-factual lecture. "They have to change out of their pants while wearing them, too, which is why their belt loops are detachable."

"Right, right," sighed Chiharu, realizing that Yamazaki was beginning to spin yet another one of his tall tales. She decided to ignore him and turned back to Tomoyo, the tiny girl in the middle of four towering women. With a glance at the nearest one, who was trying to stifle a laugh at Yamazaki's story, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Can we get away from them for a minute? They're kind of scary."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," announced one of the guards behind Tomoyo. "We're responsible for Miss Tomoyo's safety."

Chiharu blinked. "But I've never seen them before... why are they guarding you today?"

"There was a fire at my house earlier today," Tomoyo explained. "My mother wouldn't let me go out alone."

Chiharu gasped. "A fire? How did it happen?"

"I don't know," said Tomoyo. "I was just walking through the garden, and suddenly everything around me was on fire."

"It sounds like aliens!" said Yamazaki. "Their spaceship is in geosynchronous orbit over Tokyo, and they have a laser that fires with an accuracy of three millimeters per mile to the target! I read about it in the newspaper." He winked.

"Right, right," Chiharu sighed, grabbing Yamazaki by the upper arm. One of the guards behind Tomoyo chuckled. Chiharu gave Yamazaki a light, meaningful shove in the opposite direction and turned back to Tomoyo. "Well, I guess we'd better get going. I was going to tell you the incredible news, but I'll let Sakura tell you herself. She just went home, but she said she'd call you tonight to tell you."

"Incredible news?" Tomoyo asked curiously.

"Yep! It's a surprise!" Chiharu replied with a smile. "But you won't want to miss it!"

Yamazaki raised an index finger. "It's nothing special, really. They're just going to build a huge mountain of ice cream in this very park and let you eat all you want for only five hundred yen."

Chiharu openly groaned this time and dragged him roughly away. "You and your lies, Yamazaki...."

Tomoyo sighed happily. "They're so cute together... I wonder what surprise Chiharu was talking about." The guards raised their left hands to their ears, and Kazuya whispered into her wristwatch. Tomoyo's sigh turned melancholy at the reminder of why Chiharu hadn't gotten to tell her the secret. Because of the fire, she couldn't even speak to her friends in private anymore. Her close relationship with Kazuya had gotten her out of the house, but the guards would never leave her alone, even for a few minutes. Their loyalty to her mother would keep them on her like stickers on a –

Kazuya suddenly slumped forward and fell to the ground heavily, and the other three bodyguards quickly followed suit. Tomoyo gasped and knelt at Kazuya's side. "Miss Kazuya!" she shouted, shaking the woman by the shoulders. But Kazuya was sound asleep and didn't stir. "Miss Kazuya, please wake up! What happened to you?" The situation was beginning to remind her of the time that Sakura had fought the SLEEP card, but it was safely in Sakura's possession now, and bound to her will. Which could only mean....

Tomoyo stood up and looked around, hoping to see Sakura hiding behind a tree somewhere, still aglow with the magic of the Clow Cards, but there was no sign of her anywhere. Sakura wouldn't have put the bodyguards to sleep and then run away. That wasn't like her. Besides, Chiharu had said that Sakura had gone home already, so she couldn't possibly have used the SLEEP card. But then... what had put her guards to sleep? Could it have been some other kind of magic?

Tomoyo's nerves froze as a chilling thought occurred to her: Her guards' sudden somnolence and the fire that broke out at her house might be connected. Perhaps some evil entity was trying to get to her! Her head darted from side to side as she tried to watch every direction at once, deathly afraid of letting anything sneak up on her from behind.

Leaves rustled behind her, and she spun around to see what it was, but found herself facing nothing but trees. She didn't realize that she'd stopped breathing until she started again, each breath sounding like a lion's roar in the empty silence. Her heartbeat began to pound in her head, drowning out even her thoughts. But rising above the din of her own fear, she heard a bloodcurdling battle cry from behind and whirled around just in time to watch the sharp edge of a sword swing straight at her head, stopping so close to her face that her eyes crossed as she tried to focus on it. So great was her shock that it took her a full five seconds to fall down, screaming in terror.

"Oh, it's just you," said the sword's wielder, her classmate and Sakura's former rival Card Captor, Shaoran Li. He let the sword fall to his side in disappointment, but his eyes never lowered, even to look at Tomoyo. He scanned the treeline like a predator searching for prey. It wasn't until a sharp sob escaped Tomoyo's lips that he even seemed to realize that he'd surprised her. "Hey... you all right?"

Tomoyo tried to answer him, but she was too short of breath to speak. Li merely stared at her, totally at a loss for what to do. He wasn't very good at calming down hysterical girls – a skill which would have made Sakura much easier to be around whenever ghosts were mentioned. But after a brief pause to weigh priorities, he sat down next to Tomoyo and rubbed her back lightly. "Come on, take it easy. You have to breathe slowly."

Tomoyo did her best to calm down, but she was still shaking from head to toe. She was barely able to breathe in short gasps. But she collected herself as best she could and tried to put her churning thoughts into words. "Li..." she began before running out of breath.

"What happened here?" he asked suddenly. "There was a buildup of magical energy in this area, and all of your bodyguards are asleep." He kicked one of the guards lightly. "Hey, wake up!"

"They won't wake up," said Tomoyo. "I think they've been put to sleep by magic."

Li nodded. "Yeah... I can still feel it. It must have been strong to leave so much residual energy."

Tomoyo shook her head. There was something really bothering her, and as much as she hated to lose her temper, his casual disregard for her safety was inexcusable. "Li, why did you attack me?"

"I ran over here from across the park as soon as I felt the magic, and there was a big concentration of it right where you were standing." His eyes narrowed. "And it hasn't gotten any weaker."

There was something in the tone of his voice that Tomoyo didn't like. "What do you mean?" she asked nervously.

Li shifted his grip on the sword handle, examining the weapon closely. "I didn't stop my sword," he told her.

"I don't understand," said Tomoyo. "It stopped before it could hit me –"

"It stopped on its own," Li interrupted. "I'm not the one who held it back."

Tomoyo's eyes flew wide open. "You mean...?"

Li nodded. "The magic did it. Whatever put these guards to sleep stopped my sword from slicing your head in half."

Tomoyo paled at Li's description, but what worried her most was that he seemed to be implying something. "Do you know what's going on?" she asked him.

"It's very powerful magic," Li said again. "I can't quite tell what it is. My magic sense feels fuzzy... like trying to look through a frosted window. But it's so strong that I should be able to tell where it's coming from." He closed his eyes, and slowly raised an arm. His finger straightened to point right at Tomoyo, who quickly slid to the side and turned to see what he was pointing at. But when she turned back to look at his hand for guidance, she saw it pointing right at her again.

Li opened his eyes. "It's you!" he shouted. "You're not Tomoyo!" He leapt to his feet and brandished his sword. "Whatever you are, show yourself!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Tomoyo, trying to get to her own feet. Her hand came down on the chest of one of the bodyguards, unbalancing her, and she fell onto her back. Li's sword pressed into her throat before she could move again.

"I know Tomoyo doesn't have any magical power," he said as he stood tall over her. "But you can stop my sword and put adults to sleep!"

"I'm not doing this!" Tomoyo whispered, feeling the tip of the sword scratching the skin of her throat even as she tried to keep as still as possible. "I don't know what's happening!"

"You can't fool me with your innocent act," he said coldly. "I'm not going to let my guard down, and I won't show my enemy mercy! So get rid of that disguise and show me your true form!"

Tomoyo closed her eyes to avoid Li's piercing gaze. "Please, don't hurt me! I'm not in disguise and I don't have magical powers!"

"Don't lie to me!" he shouted, dripping flecks of spit onto her face. "I told you, I can feel the evil coming from you! And if I have to kill you, then I will!"

"Please, don't!" she begged again. "Just go away and leave me alone!" She felt the sword press into her throat just a bit harder, and then the pressure was gone, as she heard a metallic clang from the vicinity of her right ear. Her eyes flew open, but Li was no longer standing over her. She sat up, pushing aside the sword that had fallen beside her head, and looked around, but there was no sign of him anywhere. "Li?" she called tentatively. There was no reply.

Still rather stunned at all that had happened to her in such a short time, and yet worried about Li, Tomoyo carefully picked up the sword by its handle to examine it. The tassel attached to the pommel and the dark jewel set into the hilt were unmistakable: it was Li's sword. Tomoyo couldn't imagine that he would have gone anywhere without it. But the only other explanation was... had the evil magic done something to Li as well?

Unsure of what to do, Tomoyo let the sword fall from her fingers. She couldn't very well go home without her bodyguards, but there was no way she could move them by herself. And they wouldn't be of much help anyway, if she was being attacked by magic. There were only two people who could help with that... and Sakura was already on her way home. Now she felt horrible for yelling at Li and chasing him away. Even his threats would be better than being all alone....

A shadow fell on her, and her breath caught in her throat as she looked up to see who or what was coming after her this time. Much to her amazement, it was Shaoran Li, with a wide grin on his face. Tomoyo sighed happily. "Li! I'm so glad to see you!" But even as she said it, she felt that something was wrong with the whole situation. It took a few seconds to put her finger on it, but when Li didn't move at all in response to her statement, she realized what was bothering her about him. She hadn't ever seen a smile like that on Li's face – or any smile at all, for that matter – except for the time when the CHANGE card had put Kero's spirit in Li's body.

Li cocked his head to the side and eyed her expectantly. Tomoyo backed away from his odd gaze, trying to figure out what was so strange about him... and her hand landed on the blade of his sword. Li didn't seem to care that he didn't have it, nor that Tomoyo had her hands on it.... Her eyes reflexively traced their way up his body to the sword sticking out of the scabbard slung over his shoulder. The hilt had a dark jewel set into its handle, and a tassel dangling from the pommel.

"Where did you get that sword?" she asked nervously. "And why are you smiling like that?"

Li's smile vanished, and his eyes darted from side to side. He slowly shook his head, backing away from Tomoyo.

"What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly concerned. She left the sword on the ground and stood up, reaching out toward Li. He cringed away from her hand as if she were holding a burning coal. "Li? Are you still afraid of me?" Something else was wrong.... "Why aren't you saying anything?"

Li's face took on a look of pure panic, and he turned around and ran.

"Li, please wait!" shouted Tomoyo. She took a few running steps after him, but stopped short with a glance at her still-sleeping bodyguards. She couldn't just leave them there... but she couldn't let Li get away, either. He was her best chance of finding out what was happening to her. There was nothing she could do for her bodyguards anyway, but if she could catch Li, she might be able to appeal to what little emotion he had to get some answers. She quickly ran after him before he could get out of her sight.

Li led her through the park, passing a large number of rather astonished people. They all turned to stare at Tomoyo as she passed, but she didn't take her eyes off Li for a second for fear of losing him completely. Her lungs were beginning to ache from the hard work of keeping up with him, but she managed to keep a close distance until Li finally emerged from the park and ran across a street without looking. Tomoyo chased after him without hesitation, not even seeing the car barreling toward her until its horn honked loudly, startling her so badly that she tripped and fell flat on her face. When she looked up, all she could see was the giant fender closing in on her fast. The deafening screech of braking tires filled her ears, but she knew that it was far too late to stop in time. All she could do was scream, cover her face with her arm, and wait for the end.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound from the ground as the Earth shook violently beneath Tomoyo. The ground tilted, and she felt herself rolling away from the immense crunch of metal that actually seemed to come from under the street's surface as people screamed and shouted from the sidewalks. The world seemed trapped in slow motion as she was thrown across the road's surface, but even in her diluted perspective, the entire incident was over in seconds. As everything fell still, she could feel the crowd moving toward her, people running to her from all directions. Questions materialized randomly from the incoherent din. "Are you all right?" "Has anybody called an ambulance?" "What happened here?" "Did anyone else feel a quake?" "She's just a little girl!"

A pair of fingers pressed into the side of her throat. "Her pulse is fine," someone announced. "And she's breathing. I think she just passed out from the shock."

Tomoyo sat up and opened her eyes to see what was going on. Concerned people surrounded her on all sides except for where the formerly flat street rose up like a hill in the spot where she had been standing. She got up, ignoring the protests of the people closest to her, and climbed to the top of the asphalt mound. It broke off into a steep dropoff on the far side, and right at the bottom was the car that had almost hit her, its front bumper smashed against the solid stone. Her head swam with confusion. This was clearly a work of magic, like the fire and the sleep spell had been. But this time, the magic had protected her. It just didn't make sense. Was the source of the magic trying to hurt her, or was there some other purpose to it?

"Little girl, do you need a ride home?" asked a man at the bottom of the hill. "If you want, I can call your parents and ask them to pick you up."

Tomoyo turned around. "Oh, no! Please don't! I don't want my mother to worry about me!" She sat down to slide down the hill, brushing off her dress when she reached the ground. "I'll walk home. It's not far from here."

"Are you sure?" the man asked. "You're shaking."

Tomoyo hadn't even noticed the tremors running through her entire body until that point. She did her best to suppress them as she gave the man her warmest smile. "I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern." She bowed in gratitude, then stepped quickly through the crowd to the sidewalk. As soon as she was in the clear, she broke into a quick run, ignoring her fatigue in her haste to be away from those people.

It wasn't long after she'd lost sight of the crowd, however, that she simply couldn't run any further. She slowed to a walk, panting heavily, with her arms across her stomach. She'd lied about how far from home she was in order to get away, but she really wanted to be alone for a while. She needed to gather herself and think of a course of action. The first order of business was to get home and call Sakura. She or Kero would certainly be able to figure out what was going on, not to mention the fact that Tomoyo would feel much safer in the company of Sakura and the Clow Cards. And if there was a battle... it would be an excuse to have Sakura try on another battle costume!

Tomoyo twirled happily, coming to a stop facing a store window. Her eyes fell on a beautiful brooch in the shape of a flower in the display case. The deep blue color and gold trim would make the perfect complement to one of the costumes she had just finished most of the work on. She'd been searching her jewelry collection for just the right piece, but she knew she had nothing as perfect as that brooch. It would make the costume complete. She stepped toward the door, reaching down for her purse... which she belatedly remembered that she'd left at home in her haste to be away from her mother's concern. Her face fell. Without any money, she couldn't possibly pay for the brooch, and this wasn't one of the stores where her mother had credit.

Tomoyo sighed sadly and turned away from the window, looking up at the store's banner – Sunbeam Jewelry – and making a mental note to come back with enough money to buy the brooch... if her mother ever let her leave the house again after she'd run away from her bodyguards and nearly been run over by a car. Knowing her mother, that wasn't a likely scenario. In fact, she'd be lucky to get off with permission to go to school without requiring an armed escort! And she'd be confined to the house for a long while before then... which meant that by the time she had the brooch, the excitement would probably (hopefully!) be over, and with it the chance to have Sakura model the costume. With a heavy heart, she began to shuffle away from the store and the brooch that she would gladly have paid twice the price for, if only she could have bought it right then and there....

She stopped suddenly as she saw a small object floating directly in her path at chest height. It fell to the ground before she could focus on it, but her eyes followed it to the ground, where it landed face down, displaying nothing but a solid gold face. She bent down to pick it up, but somehow, she knew what it was even before she turned it over to look at its blue flower-shaped front. A quick glance at the window confirmed that the brooch in the display was gone. More magic....

She straightened up, curling her fingers uneasily about the brooch, wondering what she should do about it. Obviously, she couldn't keep it; that would be stealing. But what would happen if she walked into the store holding it? She couldn't possibly explain how she'd come to have it! Perhaps it would be best to just drop it outside the store and walk away....

While she pondered her strange windfall, the door of the shop opened and a very tall man stepped out. "Can I help you, miss?" he asked.

Tomoyo quickly hid the brooch behind her back. "Um... I was just looking...."

His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. "What are you hiding behind your back?" he asked.

"It's...." Tomoyo's mind raced as she tried to think of an explanation, but the man grabbed her arm and yanked it to the front of her body, then grabbed her wrist in his other hand and forced her fingers open, revealing the brooch. His eyes widened as he laid eyes on it, and he glanced at the empty spot in his display before turning back to her with fire in his eyes.

"So that's the game, is it? You little thief!" He pulled her arm so hard that her shoulder began to hurt. "I don't know how you did it, but I'm going to call the police!"

Tomoyo panicked. If the police got involved.... It was wrong to run away, but she had to escape! She pulled on her arm, trying to break free of the man's grip, but her movement was a bit more forceful than she'd planned. A very large bit more forceful. The man failed to let go in time, and found himself expertly flipped over Tomoyo's shoulder to land hard on his back. Tomoyo stared at him in shock, even after his hands released their grip. Had she really done that?

But she didn't have long to be surprised. The man recovered quickly and reached for her leg, barely missing as she leapt away. She turned around and ran, clutching the brooch tightly, as the man climbed to his feet. It took a while longer for him to start chasing her, but she heard him start running before she could reach the end of the block. His steps sounded a bit staggered, as if he was limping in pain, but Tomoyo was already tired and had a severe size disadvantage. He was closing the distance quickly. Tomoyo lowered her head and ran as hard as she could, knowing that her course was set and escape was her only option.

The shop owner's footsteps didn't slow down at all, but as Tomoyo continued to run her hardest, he began to fall behind. She began to wonder why he was slowing down... until she looked up and saw the buildings whizzing by at a speed she'd only seen when riding in a car. She slowed down without thinking, coming to a stop at the mouth of an alley. Her pursuer's footsteps were quite distant now, but he was approaching fast. She turned around to see how much time she had... and saw him just a few blocks away. She turned back to start running again, but before she could take a step, her stomach turned over and she nearly vomited. She'd run herself far beyond the point of exhaustion under the influence of the magic, and it was finally catching up to her with a vengeance. She wasn't going to be running anywhere for a while. Leaning against the brick wall for support, she staggered into the alley, searching for a place to hide.

Unfortunately, the alley was bare except for a large dumpster, and the three tall walls offered no alternate exits. The two doors, one on either side of the alley, both lacked doorknobs. There was no way to climb out, either: the shortest wall, opposite the mouth of the alley, looked to be about three stories tall. But if she left the alley now, she'd be running right into the man's arms. She walked deeper into the alley, wrinkling her nose at the smell. Breathing through her mouth hurt, but it was the only way to keep her lunch down as she crouched behind the dumpster and hoped he would pass her by.

No such luck. His shadow crept along the opposite wall as he strode boldly into the alley. "I saw you come in here, you little brat!" he hissed. "You can't hide from me!" Tomoyo's breath caught in her throat as he approached her hiding place. Her aching legs, curled under her in her haste to hide, were beginning to feel the pins and needles of numbness, but she was too petrified to move them for fear of being heard and discovered. Still, the feeling was quite uncomfortable, and it didn't take long before she was forced to shift her position despite her fear. As she swung her legs out from under her body, the numbness gave way to an entirely different sensation – a very powerful sensation. Something was coiled inside her hips and knees like a spring, throbbing with unbelievable potential.

Tomoyo put her feet on the ground and rose to a squatting position, barely able to keep her knees bent against the force within them. She felt something like a kangaroo, poised to leap in ways that humans could only dream of. Of course, it was difficult to believe that it was more than just her imagination, but with all the unbelievable things that had been happening recently, why wouldn't it work?

"Ha! Got you!" the man shouted as he lunged around the corner of the dumpster, grabbing at the space where Tomoyo had been mere moments before. He looked up just in time to see her clear the three-story high wall and land on the roof of the building that formed the back of the alley. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then shook his head and began the long walk back to his store. Some things just weren't worth the trouble....

Tomoyo, on the other hand, was in a very bad position, even though she was out of the man's reach at last. The roof access door was locked, leaving her no way to get back to the ground. She leaned over the opposite wall to peer down the front face of the building, but it was a long drop with no handholds other than the window ledges. Still, she couldn't sit around on the roof waiting to be rescued. She took a deep breath and swung her legs over the edge, then slowly lowered herself down toward one of the windows. With any luck, it would be unlocked, and she might be able to make her way to the ground floor from inside the building.

Her fingers slipped, and she felt herself tumbling to the ground below. But before she could scream, she felt a mysterious calmness, like being wrapped in a warm embrace, and she opened her eyes to look around. She was still even with the third story window and falling at a feather's pace, as if she were sinking to the bottom of a pool of water rather than plunging from ten meters in the air. Her mind, however, was racing, as she tried to figure out what was happening. Everything still felt real, but Tomoyo was beginning to feel like the entire day was nothing more than a dream. It would certainly explain a great deal. She reached up – well, down, since her head was pointed toward the ground – and pinched her cheek as a test. The slight pain she felt was enough to convince her that she was not dreaming. It wouldn't have been much of a relief if it had turned out to be a dream, anyway... she would have had to seriously doubt her sanity if she was having dreams about magic with no Sakura in sight!

But the fact that she wasn't dreaming made her situation all the more critical. According to Li, she was the target – and possibly the source – of very powerful magic. But that magic seemed to be protecting her as much as it was causing trouble and trying to hurt her. What was the connection? Or was it all just a random sequence of events? Who was causing it? And what could she do about it?

Well, there was one person who might be able to answer at least that last question – or rather, one flying stuffed animal who occasionally doubled as the lionesque Guardian of the Seal. When Sakura called later that evening to tell her about Chiharu's mysterious surprise, she'd be getting an even bigger surprise of her own....

Tomoyo's feet lightly came to rest on the ground, bringing her to her senses. She looked around, counting herself fortunate that no one had seen her unusual fall. There wasn't even any need to brush off her dress, although she did that anyway out of habit. A loud scratching sound as her fingers slid across the fabric reminded her that she was still holding the beautiful brooch from the jewelry store. She opened her hand and looked down at it, with its blue petals and gold trim that now seemed to be mocking her, as if it knew how much trouble it had caused her. She threw it into the gutter, wiping her hand on her dress to get rid of the gritty feeling it had left behind, before turning toward the early evening sun and beginning the long walk home.


	2. Tomoyo and the Message of the Cards

52 Curses

Chapter 2: Tomoyo and the Message of the Cards

It was a very timid Tomoyo who returned to the Daidouji house that evening, alone and very tired. She wanted to flop down on her bed and take a long nap, but between the door and her bedroom, she was sure to bump into her mother, who would demand to know what had happened to the security staff. For all she knew, they were still fast asleep in the park, although they had probably been robbed naked already. Guilt stabbed at Tomoyo as she thought of Kazuya and the other women left alone and helpless in the park, even though she kept telling herself that there was nothing she could have done. But that wasn't true, was it? She could have called someone, perhaps using the radios that her bodyguards always carried. She could have stayed with them until they woke up. There were plenty of things she could have done, if she'd thought about it, which made the guilt that much worse.

But it was the upcoming encounter with her mother that had Tomoyo quaking in her shoes. Her mother was not a scary woman – unless she was venting her frustrations at Sakura's father over the death of her cousin Nadeshico, although that was an entirely separate matter. What had Tomoyo worried was her mother's protective nature; she wouldn't ever risk anything happening to her beloved daughter. After the fire, and now the incident in the park, her mother was likely to fire the entire security staff and take charge of Tomoyo's safety herself. That would mean no spending time with friends outside of school hours unless they were willing to come to the Daidouji mansion... which meant that if Sakura had any more adventures, Tomoyo wouldn't be able to capture them on video.

Well, she'd never get anywhere if she stayed outside all night. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open as quietly as she could and slipped inside, shutting it softly behind her. So far, so good. She tiptoed through the front hallway toward the stairs. If she could get up to her room, she was home free....

"Tomoyo dear, there you are!" came her mother's excited shout. Tomoyo froze, facing her mother, who was practically running down the hallway toward her. "I've been so worried! What happened?" Without giving Tomoyo a chance to answer, Mrs. Daidouji fell to her knees and gave Tomoyo a big hug. "Your bodyguards stopped answering their radios, and when I sent the staff out to check on you, they found Kazuya and the others asleep, and you were nowhere to be found! We thought you'd been kidnapped!"

"I was scared and ran away," said Tomoyo, feeling a bit choked up at having to hide the truth from her mother. "I don't know what happened to the bodyguards. Are they all right?"

"We can't wake them up," her mother replied. She let go of Tomoyo and leaned back to look at her. "What about you, Tomoyo dear? Were you hurt?"

Tomoyo shook her head. "No, I'm fine. After I ran away, nothing else happened."

"Then why are you so late coming home?"

"I got a bit lost in the park because I was scared," said Tomoyo. "Then I didn't know how to get home."

"Why didn't you call?"

Suddenly, much to even her own surprise, Tomoyo burst into tears. Mrs. Daidouji gaped in shock. "Tomoyo honey, what's wrong?"

Tomoyo threw her weight forward, landing in her mother's arms, and threw her arms around her mother. "I was so scared! I didn't know what to do! I did everything wrong, and I couldn't think of what I should do! I'm so sorry! I should have called you right away!"

Her mother patted her lightly on the back. "There, there, Tomoyo. It's okay. I'm not mad at you. I'm just glad that you're safe. But from now on, I think you'll be safer staying at home where I can keep an eye on you personally."

There it was. The end of Tomoyo's young life. "Yes, mother," she said, too weary even to protest her dreadful fate. No more adventures with Sakura.... "Mother... may I call Sakura?"

That made her mother pause. "Oh, that's right. She called here over an hour ago asking for you. She wouldn't say what she was calling about, though...."

Tomoyo wiped her eyes dry and smiled. "She has a surprise for me. I should call her immediately."

"Yes, you should," her mother agreed. "But remember, you're not to leave this house under any circumstances."

"Is it all right if Sakura comes here?"

"It's very late," said her mother. "Why don't you wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm too worried to sleep," whined Tomoyo. "I'd like to invite Sakura over, just for a little while. If we can have fun together, I'll be able to sleep tonight."

Her mother thought about that for an agonizingly long while. "All right," she agreed at last. "I think we can trust little Sakura. But make sure her father drives her over here. There have been too many mishaps in the area to take any chances."

"Thank you!" cried Tomoyo, giving her mother yet another tight hug before running to the phone. She misdialed and had to start over twice before finally getting the phone number right.

The other end was picked up almost immediately. "Kinomoto residence," said a man's voice.

"Good evening, Dr. Kinomoto," said Tomoyo. "Is Sakura there?"

"I'd say she is," Dr. Kinomoto laughed. "She's practically grabbing the phone out of my hand. I think she has something important to tell you."

"I wonder what it could be," said Tomoyo.

She heard the phone being passed from hand to hand, and then Sakura was on the line. "Hi, Tomoyo! How was the dentist?"

Tomoyo smiled. Ordinary conversation could be so refreshing after a hard day. "There were no problems there," she replied.

"Well, I got a big surprise in the park today," Sakura continued. "Yamazaki's finished building his new model plane, and he invited all his friends to watch him fly it tomorrow morning!"

"That sounds like fun," said Tomoyo.

"More fun than the dentist," added Sakura.

Tomoyo laughed, then dropped her voice to a whisper. "Is Kero around?" she asked.

"Not here," replied Sakura. "I'm using the downstairs phone, and he's still up in my room, whining because Touya didn't leave him any pudding."

"Could you bring him to my house right away?" asked Tomoyo. "Some very strange things have been happening, and I think magic is involved. I was hoping that he might be able to help."

"Sure! I'll be right over. Just let me get my cards, and I'll be over in a few...."

"No, it would be best if your father drives you," instructed Tomoyo, worried that Sakura would try to arrive sooner by using the FLY card. "My mother doesn't want you to come here alone, because of the things that have happened."

"All right," said Sakura. "But I'll bring the book and my key anyway. Just in case."

She was referring, of course, to the Clow Book which housed the Clow Cards, and the Clow Key which became the wand that she used to control them. "Please do," said Tomoyo. "And please hurry."

It seemed like ages before Sakura finally rang the doorbell. Tomoyo threw the door open and gave Sakura a friendly hug, half-carrying her into the house. Sakura's father followed them in, bowing politely to Mrs. Daidouji as she entered from the kitchen. "I was just making tea," she announced. "Would anyone like a cup?"

"Sakura and I will be in my room," said Tomoyo. "I'll carry a tray up for us."

"Nonsense, dear," her mother protested. "Let one of the maids bring it up to you."

"We won't want to be disturbed," said Tomoyo. "Please let me carry the tray myself."

She made a break for the kitchen before her mother could argue again. As she was setting up the tray, she heard her mother say, "I honestly don't know what's gotten into her. She's been acting strangely all afternoon. I'm really beginning to worry about her."

"Well, sometimes a visit to the dentist can make a child feel a bit peculiar afterwards," said Dr. Kinomoto. "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

"I do hope you're right," said Mrs. Daidouji. "The strangest things have been –"

She quickly shut up as Tomoyo entered the room, carrying the tray. "Sakura, shall we go upstairs?"

Tomoyo's mother looked at the tray. "You've got three cups, dear."

"We're going to have a tea party with Sakura's stuffed animal, Kero," Tomoyo explained.

"It's going to be fun!" agreed Sakura as she followed Tomoyo up the stairs.

Mrs. Daidouji stared anxiously after the two girls. "Well, at least she's not turning into a tomboy...."

*************************************************

When Tomoyo had finished telling the story of her strange day, Kero stared down at his untouched cup of tea for the first time since she had begun. "Man, that sounds like a lot of trouble for a little girl."

"Are you okay, Tomoyo?" asked Sakura, deeply concerned.

"I'm fine," Tomoyo assured her. "With you here, I feel perfectly safe."

"I can feel some kind of energy coming from you," Kero announced. "And as much as I hate to agree with that Li kid, he was right. It's really powerful, but I can't tell what kind of power it has." He turned to Sakura. "Can you feel anything?"

Sakura closed her eyes to focus. "It's very faint..." she said. "But I can feel something. It feels almost like a Clow Card, but different."

Kero scratched his chin. "We've got to find out more about this thing before we can try to figure out what to do about it...."

"Can we use the Clow Cards to do a reading, like we did when I needed to identify the MIRROR card?" Sakura suggested.

"Sure, that'd work," agreed Kero. "But Tomoyo would have to do it, since she's obviously the focus of the energy."

"I don't know how to do that," said Tomoyo.

"Relax, it's easy," said Kero. "I'll talk ya through it." He waited for Sakura to remove the Clow Cards from the book and hand them to Tomoyo. "We'll use your bed as a tableau," he said. "Lay the cards down and shuffle them, using only your left hand."

Tomoyo sat on the bed and began to shuffle the cards. "How long should I shuffle them?"

"Until you feel that it's right," replied Kero. "The magic that's surrounding you will seep into the cards and manifest itself in the reading. Just let your feelings guide you."

Tomoyo didn't really feel anything magical, but she shuffled them until she guessed that they'd been mixed enough. "Okay, I'm done."

"Now, still using your left hand, gather up the cards and split them into three piles." It was a clumsy job, but Tomoyo collected the deck into three stacks. They were hardly even, but she supposed that didn't matter. "Now collect them into a single deck again," Kero instructed.

Tomoyo stacked the piles on top of each other. "Okay."

"Now, deal them out as I tell you, still with your left hand." He pointed to the positions on the bed as he called out instructions. "One card goes in front of you, with a bit of space beneath it for the other cards. Then, one to the left – a bit closer than that... yeah, that's right. Now, one right in front of you...."

Following Kero's commands, Tomoyo laid nine of the cards out in a formation like ninepins, or nine-ball billiards.

"Now, repeat this chant," said Kero. "It's a different one than the one Sakura would use, because you're not the rightful owner of the Clow Cards."

"All right," said Tomoyo. "I'm ready."

"'Ancient forces of Clow, mystic spirits of West and East," Kero chanted, waiting for Tomoyo to repeat the words before he continued, "show me that which I cannot see. Impart the knowledge of the truth which only you can divine."

"... which only you can divine." Tomoyo finished.

"Now, turn over the top card," said Kero. "It represents the overall nature of the situation. It's the most important thing for you to know right now."

"Do I need to use my left hand?" asked Tomoyo.

"Either hand," replied Kero. "At this point, all the magic's in the cards. All you're doing is reading them."

"Okay." Tomoyo reached out with her left hand and turned over the uppermost card in the tableau.

"'FLOWER'," read Kero. "That's a good sign. It means that whatever's causing the weird stuff you've been seeing is good-natured."

"It set a fire right next to her!" Sakura protested.

"But the fire didn't hurt her," Kero pointed out. "I have a feeling that it's trying to help her in some way. That's why most of what it's done has been protecting her. The fire and the sleep spell were probably just flukes or something. Maybe it was confused at first, and thought it was helping even though it was really doing bad things. Then, when it saw Tomoyo's reaction, it figured out what it was doing wrong and shaped up."

"That doesn't make a lot of sense," said Sakura. "Who would possibly think that setting a fire could help someone?"

Kero shrugged. "Who can say? When you don't know what you're dealing with, anything's possible. That's why we're doing this reading." He pointed to the middle row of cards. "Now, turn these over, from left to right. These three cards describe the overall nature of the source of the magic. Once we see these, we'll hopefully have an idea of what we're facing."

Tomoyo turned the three cards over, reading each one as she did so. "'LOCK'... 'MIRROR'... 'CREATE'."

Kero scowled and scratched his chin. "LOCK... that's a weird one. I've never seen that card come up in this position before."

"Do you know what it means?" asked Sakura.

"I can take a guess," said Kero. "But let's start with the easy ones. MIRROR means that it's a reflection of someone's inner nature. I'd guess Tomoyo's, since she's the center of the effect. Whatever these effects are, they're based on Tomoyo's inner self."

"Like when I was admiring that brooch, and it appeared in front of me," Tomoyo observed. "The magic was giving me what I wanted."

"Maybe it's wish-granting magic?" Sakura guessed.

"I didn't wish for fire," countered Tomoyo.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be a conscious wish," Kero pointed out. "It could be an inner desire, even one you're not aware of."

"Why would Tomoyo wish for a fire?" asked Sakura.

"It was just a thought," said Kero. "Like I said, this is a weird bunch of middle-row cards. I'm practically as clueless as you guys are." He pointed to the card at the right end of the row. "Anyway, CREATE is the symbol of imagination come to life. This is the stuff of dreams in the living world. It's either something that someone imagined which was brought to life, or more likely, it has the power to make dreams real."

"That would be how it grants wishes," said Sakura.

"So it makes sense, that way," agreed Kero. "But LOCK... must mean that it's a prisoner of something. It's bound to some kind of inescapable circumstance, which could be a place, or a person, or an event. You might see LOCK and CREATE used to describe a genie bound to a lamp, like in the fairy tales... but there's no such thing as a genie in real life."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Sakura. "Maybe it is a genie that's granting Tomoyo's wishes, and it's just a little mixed up, like you said before."

Kero shook his head. "No such thing. And if there was, it would only be able to grant wishes if Tomoyo clearly expressed them herself."

"But could it be something like a genie?" asked Tomoyo. "Perhaps it's something you've never encountered before."

"I really doubt it, but the cards don't lie," Kero admitted. "It must be something like a genie, but not the kind you've read about. The bottom card might give us something more to go on."

"The bottom card?" asked Sakura. "We didn't use that one when I was reading the cards!"

"That's because you didn't have the full deck yet," Kero informed her. "With a partial deck, only some of the cards have meaning. If you'd had any fewer cards, you would've only been able to read the top card of the layout and the top card of the deck. With all 52 cards, the entire tableau has meaning." He looked down at the faceup cards again. "And I have a feeling we're going to need all of it."

Tomoyo reached for the bottommost card in the layout. "What does this card represent, Kero?"

"That card is opposite the card that summarizes the situation in the tableau," replied Kero. "It represents the antithesis, or opposite, of what you're dealing with. It could be a weakness of the subject, or something that's missing from the situation. Usually, it doesn't tell you much, but sometimes it's the key to the entire reading."

Tomoyo flipped the card over. "'SHIELD.'"

Kero sighed. "I was afraid of that. SHIELD doesn't mean much here. All it tells us is that there's a way to defend against any harmful effects of the magic, but we'll have to figure out what it is for ourselves."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out," Tomoyo assured him with a smile. "You and Sakura are very smart and know a lot about magic."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, kid," said Kero. "You're the one doing the reading."

Tomoyo turned back to the cards. The four that lay in the compass directions and the one in the center were face-up, leaving the diagonals facedown. "There are four left."

"Those four represent the prime aspects of being," said Kero. "Physical, mental, spiritual, and magical. First, turn over the upper-left card, to see the physical nature of the subject."

"It's SWEET," Tomoyo announced as she flipped the card over. "Does that mean that it's made of candy?"

Kero chuckled. "No, SWEET isn't usually interpreted literally. It represents good intentions, like FLOWER, but more focused. In this case, it means that the magic means you no physical harm. Whatever is causing the strange effects is doing its best not to hurt you."

"Well, that's good news," said Tomoyo.

Kero nodded. "The question is, what DOES it want? Hopefully the next card will answer that question. The upper right card tells us its mental nature."

Tomoyo turned the card. "It's FIREY."

Kero's face paled. "FIREY...? This is bad."

"What does FIREY mean?" asked Sakura.

Kero took a deep breath and swallowed. "First, remember that FIREY is an elemental card, one of the four most powerful cards in the Clow deck. Anytime one of the elemental cards shows up in a reading, it's a sign that you're dealing with something really powerful."

"There were two element cards in the reading for the MIRROR card," said Sakura. "And I only had the two at the time!"

"But the FIREY card is the symbol of chaos," Kero continued. "And in this position, that means that the source of the magic has a chaotic mind. It doesn't think in ways that make any logical sense, and it doesn't fully understand the consequences of its actions."

"Then it's trying to help Tomoyo in some way, but it doesn't know how, so it does the wrong thing?" asked Sakura.

"That could be," said Kero. "Which means that the physical effects may not turn out to be so SWEET after all."

The room fell into silence for a while. Finally, Tomoyo let her eyes return to the cards. "Maybe the last two cards will give us good news."

"I sure hope so," said Kero. "I don't think we can take any more bad news."

Tomoyo felt Sakura's arm wrap around her shoulders as she reached for the card in the lower left. "This one represents the spirit, right?"

Kero nodded. "If we're lucky, it'll be something like LITTLE or LIGHT."

Tomoyo flipped the card over and gasped. "It's EARTHY."

"Another element card," said Sakura. "Please say it's a good sign, Kero."

There was no answer from Kero. Tomoyo glanced at the stuffed animal, who was floating above the bed with his mouth wide open in shock. "Kero?"

Kero wheezed a few times as his breath returned. "Sorry. I just never expected to see...."

"What does it mean?" Sakura asked as Kero trailed off.

Kero wiped his brow symbolically, even though he couldn't really sweat. "EARTHY is the symbol of solidity as well as being the most powerful element card. But as a symbol of spirit... it shouldn't be possible!"

"A solid spirit...." Tomoyo pondered Kero's words. "Do you mean like a Clow Card?"

"EXACTLY like a Clow Card," said Kero. "At least, something with as much power as a Clow Card. It has to have incredible power for its spirit to have a physical form. I'd say we're dealing with something at least as powerful as any Clow Card."

"But it can't be a Clow Card," said Sakura. "I've got them all right here."

"What else could be as powerful as a Clow Card?" Tomoyo wondered aloud.

"Not much," Kero said darkly. "My master put almost all of his power into those cards, and he was one of the most powerful magicians in the age when the most powerful magicians in all of history were at their peak. To match that kind of power...." He scratched his head. "How can I describe it?" He pounded a fist into his paw triumphantly. "Got it! You see all these cars around today, right? Well, pretend those are normal people, and people with stronger spiritual energy are cars that go faster."

Sakura and Tomoyo just smiled and nodded.

"Well, my master would have been able to drive about as fast as a bullet train," Kero bragged.

"Wow!" cried Sakura. "That's pretty fast!"

"As the master of the Clow Cards, you're not much slower, Sakura," said Kero. "And the power we're dealing with... it's up there too. It has to be."

"Something as powerful as the Clow Cards...." Sakura hummed thoughtfully. "What could it be?"

"And why is it granting wishes for someone with no magical power?" Kero wondered aloud.

"There's one card left," Tomoyo pointed out. "It's the card that describes its magical nature."

Kero nodded. "Go ahead and flip it. This is probably the most important card of all, since this power seems to manifest itself only through magic."

"And please let it be good news this time," Sakura pleaded.

Tomoyo took a deep breath and turned the final card over. "This time, it's the TWIN card."

What little color had remained in Kero's face vanished. "No... no way! That's impossible!"

"What does it mean?" asked Sakura.

"The TWIN card... there are only two things it could mean. It usually means that the magic of the subject is the same as the magic of the person doing the reading, but Tomoyo doesn't have any magic. So that only leaves... the magic of the Clow itself."

"Then it is a Clow Card!" exclaimed Sakura.

Kero nodded. "That's the only possible explanation. EARTHY symbolizes that kind of strength of spirit, and FIREY would definitely sum up the mind of a wild Clow Card."

"But if Sakura has all of the Clow Cards, then how could one of them be acting on its own?" asked Tomoyo.

"What bugs me is how many different things it's done," said Kero. "A Clow Card usually has a specific power. Even something like CREATE has limits and requires some kind of outside input to use its power. An autonomous card with more than one ability...."

"It doesn't make any sense to me," Sakura admitted.

"No, but it does remind me of something..." said Kero. "My memory gets a bit fuzzy after Clow Reed made the Clow Cards, since most of my energy was devoted to protecting the cards, but there was this one time when Clow decided the Clow Cards weren't enough of an accomplishment."

"But those cards represented all of his magical power," said Tomoyo. "What more could he hope to achieve?"

Kero floated a bit higher as he went into lecture mode. "I've already told you that anybody with magical power can use magic once it's been created, but to create a new form of magic takes a lot of skill. Only a few people could do it, and my master was one of them. But someone with no magic power, like Tomoyo or that brat who was always hanging out with Li, can't use even the simplest magic. Clow wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to create a form of magic that could be used by anyone, even if they had no power at all. That meant magic powerful enough to cast itself at the behest of the caster."

"Did he ever manage to do it?" asked Sakura.

"Yes and no," said Kero. "In the end, Clow managed to seal the power of the entire Clow deck into a single card, which he called JOKER after a card from the gaming deck on which the Clow deck was based. In the original deck, the Joker card was usually used as a wild card, which could take the value of any card in the deck. Likewise, the JOKER in the Clow Deck could use the power of any one of the Clow Cards at any time. And having that much power gave JOKER the ability to cast its own magic. But in order to do that, the card had to have a will of its own. Clow tried to control JOKER, but JOKER was too powerful for him and escaped. We never did find it, but I was in tune with the cards enough to figure out what it was looking for: a strong, unselfish will to guide it in using its power."

"So you think that after all this time, JOKER is using Tomoyo's will as a guide?" asked Sakura.

"It's the only thing I can think of," replied Kero. "Like I said before, my memory is a little fuzzy."

"It's causing me a great deal of trouble," said Tomoyo. "Is there any way that Sakura could capture it?"

Kero scratched his chin. "There has to be a way, since it's a Clow Card, but I don't know what it is."

"What about the top card of the deck?" asked Sakura. "Isn't that the card that tells what the best course of action is?"

Kero smacked himself in the face. "Of course! I forgot all about the reading!"

"Let's take a look at the card," said Tomoyo. She turned over the top remaining card in the deck.

"The SONG card," Kero read.

"What does that mean?" asked Tomoyo.

Kero shrugged. "It's your reading. You're the one who's got to interpret this card."

"Well, that's not very nice, Kero!" Sakura admonished him.

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Kero protested. "The last card in the reading isn't concrete in meaning like most of the others are. It's more like a hidden clue that has significance only to the person who's doing the reading. It's supposed to make you think a different way, and then suddenly everything clicks together in your mind and you figure out what to do next!"

Tomoyo's face fell. "I don't know what it could possibly mean. I'm not very good at this."

"Don't think about it too hard," advised Kero. "If it doesn't mean anything now, then just keep that card in mind and go on like you normally would. When the time comes, you'll figure out what to do."

"I hope so," said Tomoyo. "I don't know as much about magic as you and Sakura do."

Sakura smiled. "You'll be fine, Tomoyo! I'm sure you'll be able to do it!"

Kero nodded. "The cards may only have a limited vocabulary, but they're very good at expressing important messages. They wouldn't have given you this sign unless they knew you could understand it."

"Okay," Tomoyo said confidently. "I trust you, Kero."

Sakura gave Kero another smile. "Thanks for helping us do the reading, Kero."

"Hey, no problem," said Kero. "Anything I can do to help out the true Card Captor."

Tomoyo chuckled. "Kero loves showing off how much he knows about magic."

Kero's forehead furrowed. "It's not showing off if you ask me to do it!" he grumbled.

"She's just teasing you, Kero," Sakura assured him, patting him on the head.

"Sure, sure. See if I ever help you again."

Tomoyo lowered her smiling face right in front of Kero. "I really appreciate you helping with my problem, Kero."

Kero's heart softened. "Awww... who can stay mad at you?"

"Well, what do we do now?" asked Sakura. "Should we try to capture JOKER now?"

"I don't think we can do it just yet," replied Kero. "Like any Clow Card, JOKER won't want to go back to being a card. If we threaten it, it might fight back and hurt us, or even Tomoyo. And it's probably got at least as much power as you have, Sakura. Until we can figure out how to subdue it, we'd better leave it be." He waved his arm reassuringly. "Don't worry, though! I'm sure we'll think of something! If nothing else, Tomoyo's got the clue of the SONG card to think about."

"I would rather not think about it right now," said Tomoyo. "The tea is already cold. I'll bring us up some more."

"I'll go with you," offered Sakura. The two girls stood up and crossed the room to the door. "We'll be right back, Kero!" Sakura called as they slipped out.

"That's a good idea," Kero said to himself as he looked down at the still-intact tableau. "Enjoy yourself as much as you can, Tomoyo. I've got a feeling that something really bad is about to happen, and as much as it pains me to say it... the sign of FLOWER may well burn up in the wake of its FIREY mind."


	3. Tomoyo, Sakura, and the Inescapable Room

52 Curses

Chapter 3: Tomoyo, Sakura, and the Inescapable Room

For the rest of the evening, Sakura and Tomoyo amused themselves in Tomoyo's room. Tomoyo called down for another tray of hot tea, which her mother was only too happy to send a servant up with. Meanwhile, the girls and Kero played a few board games, played with Tomoyo's favorite dolls, and talked about their favorite adventures. All thoughts of JOKER were gone, replaced by the familiar happiness of their friendship.

All too soon, however, it ended. "Sakura!" called Mrs. Daidouji's voice from downstairs. "It's time for you to go home!"

"Coming!" Sakura shouted.

Tomoyo sighed. "I wish you didn't have to leave, Sakura."

"Me too," agreed Sakura. "I don't want to leave you alone with JOKER. But remember, Kero says it's not trying to hurt you. So I'm sure you'll be safe. And I'll see you tomorrow morning at the park, when we go to see Yamazaki's model plane."

"I'll have to try to convince my mother to let me go," said Tomoyo. "I don't think she wants me to go outside anymore, after what happened today."

"Maybe if I can get my dad to pick you up from here, she'll let you come with us," Sakura suggested. "If we're all in a big group with some adults, she'll have to think everything's safe. And Kero and I will be there to make sure JOKER doesn't try anything funny."

"I hope you're right," said Tomoyo. She leaned forward to give Sakura a hug. "I'm going to miss you. I wish you could spend the night, but my mother would never allow it after all that's happened today."

Sakura blushed. "It's only one night, Tomoyo... you'll be fine."

"You know, Sakura can't stay the night, but I can," offered Kero. "I may not be able to do much without transforming, but maybe she'll feel less alone if I'm here."

"That would be wonderful!" said Tomoyo. "Thank you, Kero!" She removed her arms from Sakura to give Kero a hug.

"Hey... watch the wings!" he protested.

"It won't be the same without you around the house," Sakura said wistfully.

Kero extracted himself carefully from Tomoyo's arms. "Yeah, it'll be different, but you can live without me for one night. Besides, it'll be fun here. Tomoyo can get any type of food she wants, no questions asked, and I won't have to spend the whole night hiding from your big brother." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You know, now that you're officially the Card Captor, I suppose you don't really NEED to have me around any more, and Tomoyo's such a lonely girl...."

"KERO!" Sakura shouted jealously.

Tomoyo smiled. "I'm sure Kero is just joking, Sakura. I just need this comfort for tonight, and then I'm sure I'll be just fine. Tomorrow, we'll come up with a way to capture JOKER, and I won't need Kero to keep me company."

"That's right," agreed Kero with an affirming nod. Then, he whispered into Tomoyo's ear, "Of course, there's no rush to capture it immediately, right?"

Sakura smiled. "Well, you two have a nice night. Bring him to the park in the morning." She grabbed the doorknob and rattled it. "Hey! The door's stuck!"

"It shouldn't be locked," said Tomoyo. "I don't even have a key for that door."

"I think this is JOKER's work," said Kero. He sniffed at the air. "Can you feel it, Sakura? The magic presence in the room is a bit stronger."

"It feels just like when we were locked in that room by the LOCK card," agreed Sakura.

"JOKER must have used the power of LOCK to seal this room," said Tomoyo.

"That's no problem," returned Sakura with a smile. "I've still got the Clow Key. I just have to unlock the door." She removed the necklace with the Clow Key on it from around her neck and inserted it into the keyhole. A quick turn unlocked the door. "See? No problem!" She opened the door and gasped.

"What is it, Sakura?" asked Tomoyo, moving toward the door to get a better view.

"This doesn't look anything like your house!" announced Sakura. Indeed, as Tomoyo moved around the bed, what she saw through the doorway was not the familiar hallway beyond her door, but a short corridor that branched in two directions at the end, with the same wallpaper as that which covered the walls of Tomoyo's room.

"It looks like the beginning of a maze," said Tomoyo.

"The MAZE card," agreed Kero. "It's JOKER again. It's trying to prevent us from leaving this room!"

"We'll have to find our way through it," said Sakura. "Tomoyo, do you have any string in here? We can use it to trace our path."

"There's some in my sewing kit," said Tomoyo. But the mention of the sewing kit that she used to make Sakura's costumes reminded her of something.... "Sakura? Would you change into one of the costumes I made for you while I find the string?"

A giant bead of sweat ran down the side of Sakura's head. "Why?"

"Because we're fighting a Clow Card!" Tomoyo reminded her. "We haven't had an adventure like this since you caught EARTHY!"

Sakura sighed. "All right. I guess I might as well."

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" asked Tomoyo, visibly disappointed at Sakura's reluctance.

"No, not at all!" said Sakura, waving her hand apologetically. "I love the costumes you make for me, really! But don't you think we should try to get through this maze quickly, before our parents come looking for us and get lost in it?"

Tomoyo nodded thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought about that," she admitted. A lost opportunity to see Sakura in one of her outfits, but keeping the Clow Cards a secret was certainly more important.

"We haven't got a lot of time before they start getting suspicious," said Kero. "Definitely not enough time to find our way through MAZE. I think we'd better find another way out of here."

"You could go out the window," suggested Tomoyo. She grabbed the Clow Cards from the bed and handed them to Sakura. "Use the FLOAT card to get to the ground safely."

"Hey, good call!" said Kero. "You could be a Card Captor yourself, if you had any magic power."

Sakura nodded emphatically. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Too bad you're not in costume," Tomoyo whispered.

"I'm sorry," Sakura apologized, "but I really don't have time for that." She held the Clow Key in her palm. "Key which hides the powers of darkness," she chanted, "return to your true form. I, Sakura, command you under our contract. RELEASE!" Nothing happened. Sakura prodded the key with a finger, but it lay perfectly still and lifeless in her palm. "Huh? What's wrong with it?"

Kero crossed his arms. "This must be the power of JOKER at work again. It's sealed away the power of your magic."

Sakura gasped. "If I can't summon the sealing wand, I won't be able to seal JOKER!"

"And you won't be able to use any of the Clow Cards!" added Tomoyo.

"What do we do now, Kero?" asked Sakura, turning to see Kero grunting in exertion. "What are you trying to do?"

Kero exhaled sharply. "I can't transform either," he informed her as he caught his breath. "JOKER's sealed all the power of Clow somehow."

Sakura fell to her knees. "This is impossible! It's got all the magic I used to have, and I have none! How can we beat JOKER when we're so outmatched?"

"We've just got to solve every puzzle it throws at us," announced Kero. "The cards chose you because you have what it takes to be a Card Captor, and one of the most important qualities is not being dependent on the cards. You can do anything without them as long as you can believe in yourself."

"I do believe in myself," whined Sakura. "I just believe in the myself that has the Clow Cards."

Kero sighed. "Sakura... now's not the time to give up!"

Tomoyo clutched Sakura's arm tightly in a hug. "I have an idea! Let me pick out a costume for you, and then it will be just like the old days, when we had so much fun capturing the Clow Cards together!"

Sakura's face lit up with an embarrassed smile. "Again with the costumes.... All right," she agreed resignedly. "I guess it might help if I put on one of your costumes."

Tomoyo's heart sank as Sakura's melancholy struck her with full force. Seeing Sakura wearing a beautiful costume always lifted Tomoyo's spirits, but there was nothing she could do to cheer Sakura up. It was the most miserable feeling imaginable. If only there was a way Sakura could share her happiness.... But enough wishful thinking. Tomoyo had walked into the closet deep in thought, and now found herself staring at the unfinished dress that the brooch she'd seen that afternoon would have completed. But she couldn't put an incomplete costume on Sakura. She'd have to choose a different one for tonight.

"Um, Tomoyo..." Sakura said timidly from the closet door. "That one you're looking at...."

Tomoyo spun around, a fierce blush coloring her face. "Oh, no! It's not finished yet! I'll find another one for you to wear...."

"Actually...." Sakura shuffled her feet as she spoke. "I thought it would look good on you."

"On me?" Tomoyo was a bit shocked at the very idea. "But I made these only for you!"

"I just don't think it's fair," continued Sakura. "You spend all your time making these wonderful costumes for me, and you never get to wear any of them yourself. You should have pretty clothes to wear as well...."

"I don't need anything, as long as you're happy," Tomoyo protested self-consciously, certain by now that her face was actually on fire. Unsure of how to react to what seemed to be an advance from Sakura, Tomoyo looked up, only to find that Sakura had done the same. Their eyes met, and they stared at each other, drinking in their embarrassed yet warm feelings.

Finally, Sakura broke the silence. "Um... I was thinking...."

"Yes?" prompted Tomoyo.

Sakura turned away and covered her face with her hands. "No, never mind. It's silly, really."

"No, what is it?" asked Tomoyo, taking a careful step toward Sakura. There was definitely something strange going on with her.

Sakura peered at Tomoyo between her fingers, watching for her reaction. "I was just thinking that you always videotape me when I'm capturing a Clow Card...."

Tomoyo nodded, not saying anything as she took another step forward.

"Well, since you're the one filming, you never get to be on the tape," Sakura pointed out. "So I thought maybe, since this is your card, I should film you instead."

Tomoyo froze. "F-film me?" Why was her heart pounding so hard all of a sudden?

"You have so many tapes of me, Tomoyo," said Sakura, her voice sounding as nervous as Tomoyo felt. "I... I want to have a tape of you, too! I want to always be able to remember you just the way you are!"

Tomoyo slowly shook her head. The words she was hearing were echoes of her own feelings, the way she herself felt about Sakura. And yet... why did hearing them from Sakura's own mouth hurt so much? "Stop it," Tomoyo pleaded quietly. "Stop playing with my heart like this!"

"But I'm not playing!" Sakura shot back forcefully. She clasped her hands to her heart. "This is the way I really feel," she announced, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I love you, Tomoyo."

Tomoyo recoiled in shock. "But what about Yukito? A-and Li?"

That probably wasn't the right thing to say, after Li had disappeared, but Sakura wasn't put off at all. In fact, her smile widened even more at the mention of those names, and she wrapped her arms around herself in a mock hug. "I love both of them, too. They give me warm feelings inside when I'm near them. But the feeling I get from Tomoyo is even warmer."

It should have been a beautiful moment, but for some reason, Tomoyo found it very disturbing. The Sakura she knew would never say such things. "Sakura, what's happened to you?" she asked.

"I don't know," replied Sakura. "I just looked into my heart, and found how I felt about you."

"I don't know what to say." Tomoyo's world was coming apart with every word Sakura said. She'd always been content to watch Sakura from the sidelines, cheering her on and cherishing her happiness. But when Sakura returned those feelings... it was uncomfortable. "I don't deserve your love, Sakura."

With those words, Tomoyo turned away from Sakura, unable to face her friend any longer. Surprisingly, for the first time ever, she wanted Sakura to leave her alone, but a pair of soft arms wrapped around her waist from behind. "Please don't turn away, Tomoyo," begged Sakura.

Tomoyo could feel Sakura shaking with sobs as she tried to hold back her tears. Tomoyo was on the verge of crying herself. But she couldn't let Sakura see her cry.

At that moment, Kero poked his head into the closet. "Hey, what's taking you guys so long? Do girls always take forever to –" He froze as he saw what they were doing, only to fall as his wings briefly stopped flapping. After flailing his arms and legs to regain his balance, he pointed accusingly at the pair. "What's going on here? Why's Sakura getting all lovey-dovey with Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo tried to come up with an explanation, but Sakura beat her to it. "I don't know why I suddenly feel this way, Kero. But now I just want to hold Tomoyo tightly and never let go. I want us to be together forever!"

Tomoyo's blush returned as she heard Sakura's declaration, but this time it wasn't because of Sakura's emotions. Sakura's words had revealed to Tomoyo why JOKER was trying to prevent Sakura from leaving. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "This is all my fault."

"Don't say that," urged Sakura. "You didn't put these feelings in my heart."

"I meant the locked door and the maze," Tomoyo clarified. "It's because I wanted to be with Sakura, and I wished that she would never leave. That's why JOKER wants to trap you in my room." But as for Sakura's feelings... were they another one of JOKER's tricks to keep the two girls together?

Picking up on Tomoyo's thought, Kero hummed to himself. "So Sakura feels the same way about Tomoyo as Tomoyo feels about Sakura.... It sounds to me like the work of another Clow Card."

"It can't be!" protested Sakura, letting go of Tomoyo and turning to face him. "These feelings are mine! They can't have come from a Clow Card!"

"Is there a card that manipulates emotions?" asked Tomoyo.

"Not exactly," admitted Kero. "But this seems like the work of the LIBRA card to me."

"LIBRA?" asked Sakura. "That's one of the cards that was still in card form when I found it. What does it do?"

Kero easily slipped back into lecture mode. "Well, LIBRA's magic tells the user whether what's being said is the truth or a lie. Clow Reed figured judges would have a lot of uses for a card like that. But there's another use for LIBRA, which is an interesting side effect of its form." He pointed to the full-length dressing mirror on the far wall of the closet. "You already know that MIRROR has two uses. Its magic creates a copy of the caster, but because its form is a mirror, it can reflect things like light or the energy beams from SHOT."

Sakura nodded, remembering that she had used that aspect of MIRROR to capture SHOT. "So what's the other effect of LIBRA?"

"LIBRA is a set of scales, representing balance," said Kero. "So the card has the power to bring conflicting things into balance. In this case, it gave some of Tomoyo's emotions to Sakura. Or rather, JOKER used that aspect of LIBRA's power."

Sakura's face clouded with sorrow. "Then when Tomoyo makes me feel so happy, it's just JOKER making me feel that way?"

"To you, the emotions are as real as Tomoyo's are to her," explained Kero. "But they're only a result of the magic."

"Then this is the way Tomoyo feels about me all the time?" Sakura turned to Tomoyo, who averted her eyes. "I never realized how you felt... all this time, with the costumes and the videos.... I thought it was just for fun, but it's so much more than that!"

Tomoyo tried to tell Sakura that it really wasn't anything to get excited over, but choked on the tears she hadn't even noticed. She felt Sakura's hand lightly touch her shoulder. "Are you all right, Tomoyo?" Sakura asked with genuine concern. "You're crying. What's wrong?"

"It's too much," replied Tomoyo. "I don't want this attention. I don't want you to act this way. This isn't the Sakura I know!"

"Hey, chill out, kid," advised Kero. "She's just overwhelmed by all the new feelings. You've spent your whole life devoted to Sakura, so you're used to the way you feel. To her, it's a sudden change, and all her memories are of you treating her like a goddess while she did nothing to return it. It's natural that she'd overdo things a little at first."

Tomoyo glanced at Sakura, who was staring back expectantly, and bowed her head in shame. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I should have considered your feelings. It's just that all I ever wanted was to make you happy. I loved you just the way you were, and I never wanted you to love me back. Not this way!"

Having finally put her true feelings into words, Tomoyo looked up, expecting Sakura to be hurt, or at the very least surprised. But Sakura smiled even more brightly than before. "Tomoyo, I AM happy. I'm happier than I've ever been before!"

Tomoyo sniffed and wiped away her tears. "Really?"

Sakura nodded emphatically. "I don't care if these are just made-up feelings... they're the greatest feelings I've ever had!"

Tomoyo couldn't help smiling at that. True, her happiest moments were when she was with Sakura, and now Sakura was finally getting to experience that feeling herself. But somehow, Tomoyo had lost it. Sakura was finally happy... and her own happiness just wasn't there. The tears came back, drawn out by the sadness deep within, and Tomoyo couldn't stop them no matter how hard she tried.

Sakura's arms circled her shoulders again, this time from the front. "What's wrong?" she asked as she hugged her friend. "I don't want to see you cry. I want you to be happy too!"

"I can't," Tomoyo confessed. "This just isn't you. My wish changed you, and now instead of living your own happy life, you're wasting your time on me. I didn't want you to be happy because of me! I wanted you to be happy because... you were happy...."

"That's it! I'm not going to let it be this way!" Sakura released Tomoyo and stepped back, staring up into the air just above Tomoyo. "JOKER, come out! I'm going to make you sorry!"

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Kero. "You're not ready to challenge JOKER yet!"

"I don't care!" returned Sakura. "JOKER made Tomoyo cry, and I'll never forgive that! If my feelings are making Tomoyo sad, then I'll do whatever I have to to get rid of them!"

"No!" shouted Tomoyo. "Don't give up your happiness for me! I'll learn to love you this way eventually!"

"You've made so many sacrifices for me already," said Sakura, glancing at the plethora of dresses that surrounded her. "It's my turn to do whatever I can to make you happy."

"But you can't use your magic!" Tomoyo reminded her. "JOKER is far too powerful! You could be hurt!"

"That's better than you being hurt," said Sakura. "I'm the Card Captor, so it's my job to take whatever risks I have to. With or without magic, I'll protect you!"

"No!" Tomoyo cried again, throwing her arms around Sakura. "Please don't do it!"

"Eh?" Sakura suddenly seemed uneasy for the first time since Kero had intervened. "Tomoyo, what...?" Unsure of how to phrase her doubt, Sakura fell silent, only to hear Tomoyo sobbing into her shoulder. "Tomoyo, you're crying again."

"I'm crying because I finally understand," said Tomoyo, her aching heart feeling much lighter as she found comfort in Sakura's new emotions. "I don't know why, but now that I know how much these emotions mean to you, I'm very happy for you!"

"I'm glad," replied Sakura. "I would have given it up to make you happy... but I really do like feeling this way." She returned Tomoyo's embrace warmly, and for the first time since LIBRA's power had affected her, Sakura and Tomoyo hugged each other with mutual feelings.

"Yeah, yeah," said Kero impatiently. "We get the message. Everybody loves each other. Now, can we please get back to the task at hand? Your parents are probably already looking for you, and that means they're lost somewhere in the maze!"

The girls ignored him, lost in their own happiness. They broke their embrace and stepped back to look at each other's smiling faces. "Isn't it wonderful, Sakura?" asked Tomoyo. "I never thought we could be this happy together!"

Sakura nodded in agreement. "It's the greatest moment of my life!"

Tomoyo regretted not having her camera in hand to capture Sakura's bright smile on film. It was the cutest expression she'd ever seen on Sakura's face. The other girl was positively glowing with cheer, and Tomoyo felt it as if it was her own. "It's the greatest moment of my life as well," she agreed. "I wish this one moment could last forever!"

Sakura made no move to reply. In fact, she didn't move at all, as if she were frozen. Kero hovered perfectly still in the air beside her, also not moving so much as a muscle. Tomoyo smiled back for a few seconds, but the lack of movement was unnerving. "Sakura?" she asked, waving her arm in Sakura's direction. Sakura didn't respond at all. "What's wrong, Sakura?"

Worried almost to the point of panic, Tomoyo grabbed Sakura's arm and pulled on it, but it wouldn't budge an inch. "What's going on?" she cried, her voice echoing in the total silence. That was another strange thing. It was already dark outside; by this time of night, Tomoyo could usually hear the crickets in the garden chirping, a noise that always faded into the background and became inaudible – until it truly vanished. Except for her own breathing, everything was as silent as death.

Suddenly, her words came back to her in one horrifying revelation: 'I wish this moment could last forever....' It was painfully clear now; JOKER had granted another wish, this time using the power of TIME to freeze time for everyone but Tomoyo herself. The moment really would last forever... but Tomoyo was the only one who would be able to enjoy it.


	4. Tomoyo's Second Chance

52 Curses

Chapter 4: Tomoyo's Second Chance

Tomoyo froze in place, not because of the magic, but because the horrible truth of what she had done was simply too much for her to bear. All she had ever wanted was to bring happiness to Sakura's life, and instead she had brought the entire world to a halt! Never again would Sakura laugh, or speak, or wear one of Tomoyo's wonderful costumes.... Tomoyo buried her face in the unmoving fabric of one of those costumes to wipe her tears away. What good would they do her now? There might still be some hope, since she was able to move, but without the help of Sakura and Kero, how could she hope to stop JOKER and break the spell? What could an ordinary girl do in the face of magic this powerful?

She could barely bring herself to look at Sakura again. She didn't deserve Sakura anymore. Not if her love was going to bring so much tragedy. She had wanted the happiest moment of her life to last forever, but what good was that if she was the only one who could ever experience it?

It was all so confusing that Tomoyo's head was spinning. She sat down heavily, her chest heaving with heavy, sobbing breaths. Sakura was still smiling, smiling at the spot where Tomoyo had been when time froze. The silence was beginning to get to her now, driving her mad even after only a minute - or what would have been a minute if time were still progressing. "I'm making a sound now!" said Tomoyo, making up anything just to hear her own voice. But it only made the pause afterward seem that much more deathly silent. She couldn't spend the rest of her life talking to herself! But there was no one else to talk to. Even the master of the Clow Cards had no power left. Tomoyo wanted so badly to hear Sakura's voice once more, but that would never happen. She was utterly alone.

"Cheer up, Tomoyo," whispered Sakura. "I'm here for you!"

"Sakura?" Tomoyo cried excitedly. She leapt to her feet to greet Sakura, wondering how she had broken free of the spell... but Sakura was still frozen, having moved not an inch. Tomoyo sighed sadly. "It must have been my imagination."

"You still sound so sad," said Sakura's voice. "Why are you not happy?"

That time, Tomoyo had been watching Sakura's mouth, and it hadn't moved. "Who's doing that?" she asked the silent room. "Who's speaking like Sakura?"

"I am," replied the voice. "The one who's been helping you."

Helping? A thought struck her. "Are you... JOKER?"

"That's right," said the voice. "You wanted to hear Sakura's voice, so I used my power to let me speak to you in her voice." It paused. "Is that not what you wanted?"

"No, it's not!" Tomoyo shot back. "I wanted to hear Sakura's voice from Sakura, not from you!"

"Oh, dear," JOKER moaned apologetically. "Once again, I have misunderstood."

Tomoyo wanted to tell the evil card to shut up, but that would be rude. Besides, this was an opportunity to find out more about JOKER so that once Sakura was free of the spell, she would be able to figure out how to capture it. "What are you trying to do?" she asked.

"All I want is to make you happy!" replied JOKER, apparently more cheerful now that Tomoyo had curbed her anger a bit. "You have so many beautiful dreams. I want to make them all come true!"

"But my dreams are about Sakura!" explained Tomoyo, hoping to reason with the card. "My dreams will never come true unless you end this spell and restore time!"

"I can't do that," said the card, its voice now truly sorrowful. "I can only use the power of each Clow Card once. Now that I've used the power of TIME to stop time, I can't use the same power to start it again."

Well, that dashed all of her hopes to pieces. "You mean... the world will be like this forever?"

"I'm sorry. But it doesn't have to be sad! I still have many powers left! You can wish for more things and make the world a perfect place just for you!"

"I don't want the world to be just for me!" shouted Tomoyo. "I want Sakura back!"

"I can't do that," said JOKER. "But look at her. See how happy she is?"

"That's not the point," snapped Tomoyo. But she did look happy....

"She'll be that happy forever. It's the perfect moment, and it will never have to change. If you had time back, she would have to go to school and do lots of homework, and then get a job just to make money to survive, and you'd probably grow apart anyway. In this timeless world, there is no suffering. No one will ever die, or get sick, or even be sad."

"You're not making me happy," said Tomoyo.

"That's all I want," said JOKER, sounding truly wounded now. "Just choose a different wish."

"Stop granting my wishes!" ordered Tomoyo.

"I can't," replied JOKER. "I have to give you everything you want. It's all I know how to do. But I can only do the things that are within what remains of my power. I have to find a way to make you happy. Surely, there is something I can do to make you happy, isn't there?"

"I was happy before, when you weren't granting my wishes. You've done nothing but make me miserable since then."

"Then what can I do to make it up to you?" asked JOKER. "What can I do to make you happy?"

"NOTHING!" shouted Tomoyo. "I don't want you to do anything! I don't want you to help me anymore! I wish you'd never even granted any of my wishes in the first place!"

That intrigued JOKER. "You want everything to be the way it was before I joined you?" it asked. "Now, THAT I can do." The room began to swirl around her, making her feel dizzy again. The colored dresses began to flow into each other, becoming an eclectic rainbow wallpaper that danced and spun around her. Tomoyo turned to Sakura, only to watch her friend be dissolved into the mixture of pigments and be absorbed. Tomoyo reached out for her, but her hand grabbed only very thick air. The colors continued to blend into each other, becoming more unified. The world split into three layers: blue and white on top, green and red in the middle, and brown beneath her feet. Then, textures began to form. The colors above became a sky with clouds, below a dirt path, and hedges with flowers sprang into bloom around her. With a final POP!, everything stopped moving, and Tomoyo found herself standing in her own backyard under the early afternoon sun.

Now she was very confused. How had she ended up here? And what was that strange magical effect? What had JOKER done now? And why were the hedges still intact? The last time she'd been in the garden, the hedges had been burned by a mysterious fire....

"Oh!" Tomoyo said excitedly. "JOKER must have sent me back in time, to before it ever granted any of my wishes!" She hugged herself, celebrating her good fortune. She had outwitted the devious JOKER and saved the world! But something still felt wrong about the whole situation... "JOKER?" she called timidly. "Are you still here?"

She got no reply. For a second, relief washed over her, as she realized that it was truly over; then, she remembered that JOKER had only been able to speak because of one of her wishes, which had been negated by her most recent wish. But wouldn't that wish have been negated as well? Apparently not. It must have been a wish to negate all wishes except itself. Or....

Tomoyo shook her head, still a bit dazed and very confused. There was no way she could figure this out on her own. She would have to talk to Sakura about it. The very thought that Sakura was free of the evil time-spell lifted Tomoyo's heart, but she had to remain clear-headed and not celebrate until she was sure that she was free of JOKER's influence forever. She would have to give Sakura a call.

As she entered the house, Tomoyo saw her mother sitting near the fireplace reading a book. She ducked out of sight, fearing that her mother would scold her for being outside after all the trouble of the day before – then remembered that none of it had actually happened. This time travel business was going to take some getting used to! Taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves, Tomoyo stood up, smiled and waved to her mother, then crossed the room to reach the phone and dialed Sakura's number.

"Hello, this is the Kinomoto residence," replied Dr. Kinomoto's voice from the other end. "Nobody's here to –"

Tomoyo hung up. She would have to speak to Sakura in person. But where would Sakura be? ... Of course! When she'd met Chiharu and Yamazaki at the park the day before... or rather, the day that hadn't actually taken place, they'd just seen Sakura, hadn't they? "Mother, may I go to the park?" she asked.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" asked her mother, setting down the book. "I thought you were tired after the dentist's appointment this morning."

True, she had been, but that seemed so long ago. "I'm fine, Mother. I'd like to spend some time around other people now. The garden is too lonely."

Mrs. Daidouji smiled. "All right, Tomoyo dear. Just don't be too long. I want you back before dark."

Tomoyo gave her mother another prize-winning smile. "Thank you so much!" She bowed gratefully and ran for the front door.

"'Thank you?'" her mother repeated to herself. "Whatever for, I wonder? Did she think I was going to keep her here, like a prisoner?"

*************************************************

The park was just as beautiful and lively as Tomoyo remembered it – which wasn't a great surprise, considering that this was the same period of time during which she'd last visited it. However, she ignored most of the sights around her, focusing instead on trying to find Sakura before she left. She set off in the direction from which Chiharu and Yamazaki had come when she'd spotted them before (after? Crazy time travel!), hoping that they weren't too far away.

Her hopes, for once, were answered without interference from JOKER. Chiharu and Yamazaki were just waving goodbye to Sakura and Li around the next curve. Tomoyo ran to meet them, shouting "Sakura!" to catch their attention.

Sakura waved back. "Tomoyo! What a surprise to see you here! I thought you went to the dentist today!"

By the time Sakura had finished her sentence, Tomoyo had closed the gap and come to a stop, resting her hands on her knees and panting from the exhausting run. She hadn't slept yet, and it had been a VERY long day. "I did," she began, "but I needed to talk to you about something. You and Li both."

Li nodded. He was staring at Tomoyo as if trying to classify her as friend or foe, but this time, she knew the reason. He waved at Chiharu and Yamazaki dismissively. "You two had better go. This is private stuff."

"How rude!" returned Chiharu. "Not even a goodbye... and we were going to tell Tomoyo about the surprise for tomorrow."

"We'll tell her later," snapped Li. "This doesn't concern you!"

Sakura jabbed Li in the side with her elbow. "Sorry about that," she apologized. "We've got some exciting stuff going on too, and we really want it to be a surprise for you two."

"That's okay," said Yamazaki, extending his index finger. "They're only unveiling the world's biggest ice cream sundae here tomorrow. Only five hundred yen for all the ice cream you can eat!"

"I already heard that one," Tomoyo said without thinking.

Yamazaki blinked in surprise. "You mean it's true? I thought I just made it up!"

Quickly realizing her mistake, Tomoyo forced a wide smile. "Ha ha," she laughed dryly. "I fooled you that time."

Chiharu gave Tomoyo a worried glance, her hand already tightly gripping Yamazaki's ear. "Are you feeling okay, Tomoyo? I've never heard you joke like that before."

"I'm fine, really!" Tomoyo assured her, a bit too eagerly. "I'm just a bit out of sorts after my visit to the dentist this morning. It's nothing to worry about."

"Okay," Chiharu reluctantly capitulated. "You should go home and get some rest for tomorrow. Yamazaki's going to show off his new model plane right here in the park, and he's invited you, as well as Sakura and Li, and Rika and Naoko."

"It sounds like fun," Tomoyo said with her natural winning smile. "I'll enjoy it."

"Just don't get too close to the propeller," warned Yamazaki. "I've seen kids get sucked in by the force of the wind, and –"

"Right, right," sighed Chiharu, dragging him away before he could finish his tall tale.

Sakura sighed in exasperation. "I didn't want to know what happened to the poor kid who got sucked into the propeller...."

Li shook his head and returned his stare to Tomoyo. "What did you want to talk to us about?" he asked suspiciously.

Tomoyo took a deep breath. It was not going to be an easy explanation. "I know you feel a strange energy in me, Li. But I promise you that I really am myself. I've just become the vessel for a Clow Card."

"A Clow Card?" Li repeated. "But that's impossible! Sakura controls the Clow Cards!"

"It's not one of the cards in Sakura's deck," explained Tomoyo. "It's a different card, called JOKER, that has the powers of all 52 cards. JOKER follows me everywhere I go and grants my wishes using that power."

Kero popped his head out of Sakura's backpack and gasped in a miniature lungful of air. "Did you say JOKER?" he asked. "I've never heard of a card like that."

"But you were the one who told me about it!" protested Tomoyo.

Kero climbed onto Sakura's shoulder and crossed his arms. "Sorry, kid. You must have me confused with some other guardian beast. I don't know anything about any JOKER."

"You remembered it while we were doing a reading with the Clow Cards," Tomoyo insisted. "The TWIN card came up to show the magical nature of the threat, and –"

"When did we ever do a reading with the Clow Cards, Tomoyo?" asked Sakura. "I've only done one reading, and I did that one alone."

Of course. The detail she'd forgotten to mention. "None of you would remember it," she realized aloud. "I accidentally made a wish that caused JOKER to freeze time for everyone but myself, and then wished to go back to the way things were before I made any wishes. So everything that happened to me since yesterday afternoon really didn't happen, but I can remember it."

"It doesn't make sense," said Li. "Sakura and I have magical powers and you don't. If anyone could remember what happened, it should be us."

"JOKER has sealed away your powers," Tomoyo explained. "Sakura tried to use her powers, but they didn't work, and Kero couldn't transform into his normal form."

Kero scratched his chin. "JOKER... JOKER... it's starting to remind me of something...."

"What else do you know about this card?" asked Li. "Tell us everything."

Tomoyo quickly related the events of the day that had never happened – the fire in the garden, her visit to the park, the near-death experience with the speeding car, the encounter with the jewelry store owner, and finally Sakura's visit and JOKER's attempts to trap Sakura in her room forever. She avoided mentioning the effect of LIBRA, instead mentioning the time freeze without giving the reason for the wish.

"Then JOKER spoke to me in Sakura's voice," she finished, "and told me that it could grant any wish I had, but could only use the power of each Clow Card once. And then it returned me to the moment when it had first met me."

"Using the power of the RETURN card, obviously," Li deduced.

Kero nodded sagely. "Now I remember JOKER. That was a wily card, all right. Clow never did manage to figure out how to tame its power. I guess the trick was that JOKER needed to choose its own master. I suspect it was looking for an unselfish heart to guide it, and Tomoyo's as unselfish as they come."

Tomoyo blushed deeply. "I'm not that unselfish."

"So, what can we do about JOKER?" asked Sakura.

"I think we need to exhaust its power," said Li.

"Exhaust its power?" repeated Sakura.

Li nodded. "She said it can only use the power of each card once, right?"

Tomoyo nodded in affirmation.

"Then once it's used all 52 cards, it'll be helpless," Li continued. "That's how we can get rid of it."

"I don't think it'll be that easy," argued Kero. "I don't think JOKER will be helpless for long. If I remember Clow's procedure correctly, once the card runs out of power, its magic will recharge within a few minutes, and it'll escape in search of its next victim."

"But we'll have those few minutes in which to capture it," Li pointed out.

"Assuming that the seal on Sakura's magic is broken when its power runs out," countered Kero.

"Even so, Tomoyo will be free of its power," returned Li. "So what if the card gets away?"

"We can't just let a card that powerful run free!" Sakura put in. "If it finds another victim, we might never be able to track it down!"

"Then we'll just have to get it right on the first try," said Li. He turned to Tomoyo. "Go on. Wish for something so we can start using up JOKER's power."

Tomoyo shook her head worriedly. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" Li asked, beginning to show signs of anger. "Just wish for something!"

"If I do, someone will get hurt!" Tomoyo protested. "Every time I wish for something, somebody ends up getting hurt! I can't let that happen!"

"If you don't use your wishes in a controlled way, they'll just act randomly the way they've been doing," Kero pointed out. "Somebody's going to get hurt no matter what you do. Just try to think of harmless things to wish for."

"I just had a thought," Sakura began, before Tomoyo could come up with a harmless wish. "We want to make sure all of the cards get used up, so we should find a way to keep track of which ones were already used."

"Kero, what about the ones that were used before RETURN?" asked Li. "Are they still used up, or were they canceled when JOKER reversed time?"

Kero shrugged. "Don't ask me. This is new magical ground for me too."

"We could try using one of the wishes that Tomoyo already made before," suggested Sakura. "If the same thing happens again, we'll know that JOKER got all of its power back."

"I've got it!" Kero cheered excitedly. "Wish for the kid to disappear again!" Li glared at the guardian beast, who stuck his tongue out in return.

"No, don't do that!" protested Sakura. "If Li really disappears...."

"... we can just use the RETURN card to undo the effect, like before," Kero finished for her. "There's absolutely no danger involved if the wishes can be reused. And if they can't, then nothing will happen."

"Besides, I only wished for Li to disappear because I was scared," added Tomoyo. "Now that he knows the truth, he won't threaten me, and I truly don't want him to disappear again."

Li continued to glare at Kero. "I think we should find another wish to repeat," he said coldly.

"We could go to the jewelry store and wish for the brooch again," suggested Tomoyo. "I know I'd still love to have it."

"I think that's a much safer suggestion," agreed Sakura, favoring Kero with a glare of her own.

"Yeah, whatever," Kero grumbled, climbing back into Sakura's backpack. "Just don't expect me to help if the three of you get caught shoplifting."

*************************************************

After a brief detour to let Sakura's father and Wen know that they would be at the north side of the park, the three set off toward the jewelry store with Tomoyo in the lead. She was nervous about the prospect of being chased by the owner again, but reminded herself that the RETURN card's power would be enough to avoid any further trouble... and if it came to that, she'd use the SLEEP card on herself to get some well-deserved rest. After all, she'd only just returned from the dentist.

"Tomoyo, look out!" shouted Sakura from several feet behind her. With a start, she realized that she'd walked right into the street without looking where she was going, and a truck was bearing down on her too quickly to stop. Tomoyo screamed and curled into a ball, praying that JOKER's magic had indeed returned, because without the power of EARTHY, there was nothing to stop the truck from running her down.

"Petals of wind, heed my call!" Li shouted from the curb. Tomoyo felt a strong rush of wind as the truck barreled toward her, its horn signaling her imminent death. But the impact never came. She opened her eyes and peered up into the still-gusting wind to see the truck rising into the sky, carried in the center of a swirling vortex of air.

Sakura and Li were at her side in an instant, rubbing her shoulders as the tornado carried the truck away. "Are you all right?" asked Sakura.

"I'm fine," Tomoyo said for the second time in the situation. "Thank you, Li."

"For what?" asked Li, tossing a limp ofuda to the ground beside her. "My magic failed."

"Failed?" repeated Tomoyo. "But the truck –"

"That wind didn't come from me," Li reaffirmed. "It looked more like the power of STORM."

"STORM...." Tomoyo's brow furrowed as Sakura and Li hauled her to her feet, hoping to move along before a crowd could gather. The street was almost empty by now, and the few people who had seen what had happened seemed to be more interested in where the truck had gone than the children in the middle of the road. "Last time, the power of EARTHY saved me," Tomoyo thought aloud as the other two led her to the far sidewalk. "But this time, it was STORM."

"That might mean that JOKER's powers haven't recharged," speculated Li. "On the other hand, the situation was a bit different. It's possible that EARTHY wouldn't have been able to stop the truck in time, forcing JOKER to use a different power. I still want to see what happens at the jewelry store before we leap to any conclusions."

Tomoyo nodded and swallowed. Her heart was still pounding from the shock, and she could barely stay on her feet even with both Li and Sakura supporting her. But having her friends at her side provided immeasurable comfort, as did – loath as she was to admit it – the power of JOKER watching over her to protect her from any truly mortal danger. She straightened up, let her own legs carry her weight, and pointed the way to the jewelry store.

They'd gotten a later start than Tomoyo had the last time she'd made this trip, so by the time they got to the jewelry store, the sky was beginning to darken. "I think my father's probably worried about us," Sakura noted. "We'd better hurry."

Tomoyo felt uneasy once again as she turned to face the window display. The brooch was in its place, as she had known it would be, but the thought of actually holding it again brought with it the chilling memory of a giant hand grasping her arm, and she shivered at its touch even though it was merely in her imagination. Her desire to have the brooch was nothing compared to the traumatic experience associated with it. Besides, even if it was unlikely to work, she was just going to invite trouble by making another wish. She didn't want any more trouble!

"What's the problem?" Li asked impatiently. "Make the stupid wish already."

"I don't think I can," Tomoyo replied sadly. "I'm too scared."

"There's nothing to be scared of," Li told her condescendingly. "If something goes wrong, you just wish to go back in time again."

Sakura put her arm around Tomoyo's shoulders. "I understand how you feel, Tomoyo. I'm kind of scared too."

"Really?" asked Tomoyo, taking comfort in Sakura's empathy.

"I've faced a lot of Clow Cards, and I had magic to defend myself," Sakura reminded her. "And I was still scared of them. I can't imagine what I would have done if you hadn't been there with me. So now I'm going to be here for you."

Tomoyo gripped Sakura's hand and squeezed it, feeling the reassuring warmth of their friendship. With Sakura by her side, nothing could threaten her. And such a special friend deserved a beautiful piece of jewelry.... Tomoyo's eyes fell to the flower-shaped brooch again, and this time she truly did want to hold it again, take it home and put it onto a costume for Sakura to wear. She held out her hand, palm up, and felt the cold metal of the brooch on her fingers.

"Hey, it worked!" exclaimed Sakura.

"No, it didn't," replied Li, pointing to the display. "It's still there."

Tomoyo closed her fingers around the brooch as she followed Li's finger to the spot in the display where the brooch still sat, undisturbed. "No, I have it in my hand," she confirmed. "But it's not the same one that's in the window. It must be a different one."

Li held out a hand to Tomoyo expectantly, and she gave the brooch to him. He examined it carefully, then stared back at the one in the display. "It's the same," he announced. "It's an exact copy of the one in the store window."

"What are you kids doing here?" asked a gruff voice from the direction of the shop's front door. Tomoyo gasped at the sound – it was the store's owner! He grabbed Li's arm and looked at the brooch. "That's from my store!" he shouted. "How did you kids get it?"

"We were just comparing it to the one you have there," Li said calmly, pointing to the window again.

The man looked down at the brooch in Li's hand, then at the one in the window. "That's impossible..." he said. "That brooch is a one-of-a-kind antique! My grandfather made it with his own hands and destroyed the mold afterward!"

"Guess someone must have found a way to copy it," returned Li. "It doesn't look that special to me. I could probably make one just like it myself."

"Did you make this?" the owner asked, waving the brooch in Li's face. "Where did you get it?"

"Would you mind giving it back now?" Li asked, not batting an eye. "Don't make me go to the police box. They don't take kindly to old men who bully kids."

Sakura grabbed Li's shoulder imploringly. "Don't provoke him, Li," she whispered.

"He can't prove anything," Li replied coolly, as much for the man's benefit as for Sakura's. "Like he said, his brooch is one-of-a-kind, and it's sitting right there in his store. If he's not going to accuse us of stealing, then he'd better just move along and leave us alone."

The man's eyes narrowed, and Tomoyo had the sinking feeling that he was about to drag Li into the store and call the police. She stepped forward, clearing her throat to buy time to think of a way to explain their situation without telling the truth about the Clow Cards; but the man stepped away with one last glare at Li. "I don't want to see you kids around my store again, or your parents will hear about this."

Li brazenly stuck his tongue out at the owner's back as he walked away. "Adults are all the same. They think they can push us around because we're kids, but all we have to do is stand up to them once and they can't do a thing."

"That was amazing, Li!" cheered Tomoyo, whose knees were still shaking. "You're so brave!"

"Eh, it was nothing," said Li. "Here's your brooch."

Tomoyo accepted the brooch from him, while Sakura took the first chance to compare the two brooches. "How is it possible?" she wondered aloud. "It really is an exact copy. But that man said that it was the only one like it in the world. So how...?"

"Don't you even know your own power?" Li shot back. "This is the work of the TWIN card."

"Oh, right," Sakura agreed sheepishly. "I forgot about that card."

"Then instead of stealing the brooch from the store," Tomoyo realized, "JOKER just made a copy of it this time."

Li nodded. "I think that proves that JOKER's power hasn't returned. Twice now, it's granted the same wish using a different power."

"Well, that's good news," said Sakura. "It must be pretty weak by now."

"It's also bad news," countered Li. "It means that we don't have the power of RETURN to undo any mistakes we might make. From this point on, any trouble that JOKER causes is done for good."

Tomoyo felt a lump forming in her throat at Li's declaration. Her own mind filled in the unspoken words: any trouble that JOKER causes by granting her wishes. There was no way to deny that her desires were responsible for everything that JOKER had done. Even such a harmless thing as a brooch, even when the original remained where it was while she had a mere copy, her wish had still caused more trouble than it was worth.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, apparently seeing some of the guilt on Tomoyo's face.

Tomoyo curled her fingers around the brooch again, taking in the smooth texture of the gold plating and the slightly rough blue coating on the petals. Why was it that such a beautiful object could feel so loathsome when she finally had it? She hauled her arm back and hurled it down the street as far as she could. "I HATE IT!" she screamed.

Sakura and Li gasped in unison at the venomous declaration from the mouth of the most loving person they'd ever met. Sakura approached her carefully, as if suddenly afraid of the girl her best friend had become. "Tomoyo...."

"Why does everything I want have to hurt people?" wailed Tomoyo as her legs failed her and she fell to her knees, steady streams of hot tears pouring down her cheeks despite herself. "I never wanted to hurt anyone!"

Sakura knelt beside Tomoyo and held her in a tight hug. "It's okay, Tomoyo. It's not your fault."

"But it is," Tomoyo sobbed. "I stole jewelry, made Li disappear, set my mother's garden on fire, froze Sakura in time forever, and even manipulated her emotions... and I wanted all of it! Every one of those things was something I wanted!" Torn with hatred for herself, Tomoyo turned and buried her face in Sakura's blouse. "I don't want to want anything anymore! Not if people get hurt!"

"You can't be angry at yourself for this," said Li. "It's the power of JOKER that makes your wishes hurt people."

"But Kero said that JOKER chose me because I was unselfish... how can I be unselfish when I want so many things?"

Li opened his mouth to say something else, but Sakura's eyes caught his with a warning glare before he could come up with the words, and he wisely decided to shut up.

"I'm scared, Sakura," Tomoyo whispered, barely breaking the silence. "I'm scared of what will happen to everyone if I keep wishing for things."

"It's all right, Tomoyo," Sakura assured her. "Whatever happens, we'll be together."

Tomoyo gratefully squeezed Sakura so hard that the older girl couldn't breathe until she loosened her grip. As bad as she felt, Sakura always had a way of convincing her that things would work out in the end. Still, the tears had already started, and didn't stop until Dr. Kinomoto's car pulled up to the curb to pick the kids up and take them home. In the meantime, it was all Tomoyo could do not to wish for anything that would end up hurting her friends again. It was beyond even JOKER's incredible power to grant the only wish that would truly make her happy now – to never have another wish again.

  



	5. Tomoyo's Troublesome Dream

52 Curses

Chapter 5: Tomoyo's Troublesome Dream

Tomoyo had changed into her pajamas in record time that night, looking forward to a good night's sleep more than ever after the day-and-a-half long adventure she'd just been through. However, she might as well not have bothered, as her overactive nerves were threatening to keep her awake all night. In the few hours since she'd arrived at home, she'd downed so many glasses of warm milk that her mother was beginning to worry, yet her hands were still shaking. Every thought that popped into her head had to be brutally beaten down before it turned into a desire. During the awkward silences while the servants were in the room and Kero had to play the stuffed animal, she'd passed the time mentally reciting the alphabet and multiplication tables until her mind began to run the letters and numbers together. Seven times F equals thirty-Q.... She wanted to scream.

"Hey, kid, what's on your mind?" Kero called from the bed. "You look kinda spaced out."

Tomoyo blushed. "I'm sorry," she said. "My thoughts are so confused right now. I'm worried about what JOKER will do next."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," said Kero. "You've got me and Sakura on your side. And the kid," he added with a show of reluctance. "We know what we're dealing with, and that's usually the hardest part of fighting a Clow Card. All we need is a plan of attack, and that's just a matter of time." He grabbed the last of the slice of cake that Tomoyo hadn't been hungry enough to eat and shoved it into his mouth. "Sho jumf tenk en eefy em rumack."

Tomoyo giggled despite herself. "You're right," she agreed. "I should just take it easy and relax."

Kero swallowed. "There ya go! There's the Tomoyo I know!"

Tomoyo climbed into bed and slid under the covers. Kero curled up at her shoulder and yawned. "Man, it's later than I thought," he said through the yawn. "Time for some serious shut-eye."

"Do you miss Sakura?" Tomoyo asked suddenly.

Kero poked his head up sleepily. "Huh? It's only been a few hours."

Tomoyo turned to face away from Kero. "I just thought that you always get to sleep with Sakura. Isn't this the first time you've been away from her?"

"Well, not really. There was the time I ran away and ended up finding the FLOAT card, and the time I switched bodies with the kid thanks to the CHANGE card. Compared to those times, this is downright cozy. After all, I get to spend the night with a good friend tonight."

Tomoyo smiled. "I wish I could spend the night with Sakura."

"Careful!" warned Kero. "Talk like that, and JOKER might just try to grant that wish."

"I wouldn't mind dealing with JOKER, if Sakura were here with me," said Tomoyo dreamily.

Kero returned to his fully curled position. "You'll be whistling a different tune if it actually happens," he mumbled sleepily. "Never a good idea... bringing trouble on yourself...."

But Tomoyo was already fast asleep.

*************************************************

"Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo opened her eyes at the sound of the voice, but saw nothing. She was surrounded by darkness so deep that she couldn't even see her own body. There was no light at all in this place, wherever it was. Nor could she smell anything, and the air had no taste at all. There was no evidence that anything existed at all, except for herself. She was afraid to move for fear of losing contact with whatever was beneath her feet forever.

Yet, there was the voice. It had to mean that she wasn't alone, but it had been a mere echo on the edge of hearing, so she hadn't been able to determine whose voice it was. "Hello?" she called out tentatively, but her words were swallowed by the darkness. She couldn't even hear the sound of her own voice. It wasn't cold – even that would have been a welcome sensation – but she shivered all the same.

"Tomoyo?" the voice called again. This time, she caught a familiar tone of friendship; a soft, gentle lilt that told her exactly whose voice it was. The one most welcome in her time of need.

"Sakura!" she shouted excitedly. "I'm here!"

Sakura appeared in front of her, wearing the costume that Tomoyo had been working on for the past three days, complete with the flower brooch from the jewelry store. She was leaning slightly forward with her hands behind her back. But something was strange about her, although Tomoyo couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Is something wrong?" she asked, still unable to hear herself.

"Nothing's wrong," replied Sakura, her mouth not quite moving in synch with her words. "Everything is perfect, isn't it?"

Tomoyo stared at Sakura in a way that normally would have caused the older girl to cringe with embarrassment, but Sakura seemed completely unfazed by it. In fact, except for blinking occasionally, she didn't move at all. Not so much as a twitch. And as Tomoyo looked more closely, Sakura's image had no depth at all, as if she were a mere cardboard cutout.

Sakura suddenly changed positions, standing up straight with a disappointed look on her face. "You don't look happy, Tomoyo."

"This is a dream," said Tomoyo, backing away from the fake Sakura.

Sakura's smile returned. "That's right. Don't you want to have fun?"

A pair of words appeared in front of Sakura: "YES" and "NO" in floating white characters.

"Yes?" Tomoyo guessed, genuinely confused.

The word "YES" flashed, and both words vanished. A second later, Sakura flickered into an excited pose. "All right!" she cheered. "We're going to have so much fun!"

"Is this some kind of game?" Tomoyo wondered aloud. "Like those dating games that the boys are always talking about? I think I saw Hayashi playing one like this last year."

"Where should we go?" Sakura was asking. Tomoyo looked up to see the three choices – "AMUSEMENT PARK", "ZOO", "PARK" – floating in the air and realized that her comment had been ignored. She considered the three choices and made her selection.

"Let's go to the park," she said, getting into character.

The cutout of Sakura leapt enthusiastically forward, and suddenly came to life. "Great!" said the much more lifelike Sakura, threading her arm through Tomoyo's elbow. The darkness became Penguin Park, and the girls were standing in the middle of the playground, in front of the giant penguin slide that was the park's namesake.

"What should we do first, Tomoyo?" asked Sakura, snapping Tomoyo out of her admiring reverie.

Tomoyo waited a few moments for the answer choices to appear, but quickly realized that the rules had changed now that they had progressed to another part of the dream. "Shall we play on the slide?" she suggested.

"Sure! I'll go first!" said Sakura. She ran to the base of the slide and began to climb the ladder while Tomoyo watched, enjoying herself despite the uneasy feeling the dream was giving her. There was just something about watching Sakura have a good time that made her heart flutter, no matter what the circumstances were.

Sakura reached the top of the slide and waved to Tomoyo. Tomoyo waved back with a wide smile, but something in the air set her spine on edge. There was a hint of laughter echoing through the park, even though Sakura and Tomoyo were the only living souls in sight. It was probably just an artifact of the dream – the park wasn't usually this empty, and laughter was usually prominent in the background noise.

"Here I go!" shouted Sakura as she sat down and slid the length of the smooth incline. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she stood up and posed with her arms straight out.

Tomoyo applauded. "That was wonderful!"

Sakura wiped her brow with the back of her arm and smiled. "Would you like a turn?" she asked.

Tomoyo nodded and stepped forward, but stopped in her tracks when she noticed that the slide was vibrating. She tried to warn Sakura, but couldn't find her voice.

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Tomoyo, what's wrong?" she asked.

Tomoyo could do no more than point, slack-jawed, at the slide as it slowly rose into the air. She gasped a few times before a word finally reached her lips. "SAKURA!"

Sakura finally turned around to see the slide hovering over her head, just in time to scream as it fell down and crushed her.

"NO! SAKURA!" screamed Tomoyo as she ran to the side of the fallen penguin. She tried to push the monstrosity off of her friend, but was far too weak to budge it. Not that it would have mattered if she could – not even Sakura could survive such an impact. The first traces of blood were already beginning to seep out from under the slide. Tomoyo sank to her knees and cried. "Sakura...."

"There you are, Tomoyo!" said a friendly voice from behind her.

Tomoyo whirled around and found herself facing Sakura, alive and completely unharmed. She screamed and backed up right into the fallen slide. "Sakura! How – you're dead!"

Sakura smiled and shook her head. "I'm not dead. I'm right here."

Tomoyo raised a hand to her forehead and leaned heavily against the slide. "This can't be! What's going on?"

Sakura giggled. "This is a dream, remember? Nothing here can really hurt me."

Tomoyo heaved a relieved sigh. "This is a horrible dream. I was really scared!"

"Don't worry," Sakura assured her. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

Tomoyo ran to give her friend a hug. "Oh, Sakura! I'm so glad you're –"

Suddenly, Sakura's entire body burst into flame. Tomoyo backed away, shielding herself from the heat with her arms and screaming Sakura's name. Sakura's screams of pain didn't last long before she crumpled to the ground, still burning.

"What's going on?" Tomoyo asked aloud, turning away from the sight of her twice-dead friend. "I don't care if this is a dream; I don't want to see Sakura die!"

"I'm not going to die," replied Sakura's voice. Tomoyo looked up to see Sakura standing in front of her, once again unaffected by her earlier death.

"What kind of dream is this?" asked Tomoyo, hesitant to keep her eyes on Sakura for fear of having to watch her die again. "Why is this happening?"

"A dream brings out your innermost thoughts for you to see," Sakura explained as a lime green mist swirled around her feet. "This must be what you're thinking about."

"Why would I be thinking about Sakura dying over and over?" demanded Tomoyo.

"Maybe it's because you don't want it to happen in real life?" Sakura suggested. The mist rose to form a dense column around her, thickening until she could no longer be seen. Seconds later, she began to scream as the mist took on a dark red hue.

Tomoyo gasped. "That's... MIST! Sakura's being attacked by the Clow Cards!"

Sakura's screams quickly fell silent, and the acidic mist vanished, leaving behind nothing but bones. Tomoyo turned away, wondering how much more she would be able to stand before she felt sick. This was wrong. Everything about this dream was wrong.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura called from the sandbox at the far end of the park. "Remember how we used to build sandcastles together?"

Tomoyo started toward the sandbox at a trot. "Sakura, be careful! The powers of the Clow Cards are trying to kill you!"

Sakura stood up and brushed the sand from her dress. "That's impossible!" she protested calmly. "I'm the Master of the Clow. The Clow Cards would never hurt me."

Sand.... "Get out of the sandbox!" shouted Tomoyo, breaking into a run. "The SAND card!"

Sakura's expression turned to concern as she tried to step out of the sandbox. "My feet are stuck!" she shouted. "I'm sinking!"

Tomoyo ran even faster. "Hang on, Sakura! I won't let you die again!"

"Hurry!" shouted Sakura as she sank to her waist. She grabbed at the edge of the sandbox, but it was too far away to support her.

"I'm almost there!" She could see the sand itself now, a swirling, churning pool with Sakura at its center. In a few more steps, she'd be able to reach Sakura and save her from at least one death – and with her next step, Tomoyo found herself at the far side of the park again. "What happened?" she asked. "How did I get so far away?"

"Tomo-!" Sakura gasped as her head went under.

Tomoyo could only watch helplessly as the sand swallowed Sakura's frantically flailing arms. She fell to her knees and pounded the ground with a fist. "I couldn't save her...."

"It's all right, Tomoyo," said Sakura, resting a hand on Tomoyo's shoulder. "I can be strong. I'll keep you safe."

Tomoyo looked up at her friend through tear-streaked eyes. "You're the one who's in danger, Sakura. This is my dream, but I can't stop it."

"Everything will be fine," Sakura assured her.

"No, it won't," said Tomoyo. "You're going to die again."

"And I'll come back to life again, won't I?" asked Sakura. "So it all works out in the end."

"Doesn't it hurt?" asked Tomoyo.

"I don't know," replied Sakura. "After all, this is only a dream."

"I want to wake up," Tomoyo insisted. "I don't want to have to watch you die again!"

Sakura started to reply, but her words turned into a scream as her feet lifted from the ground and she floated into the air. Tomoyo leapt up to grab her before she could fly away, but missed. She stared up into the sky and watched Sakura until she had vanished from sight, then turned and ran so that she wouldn't have to see the result when Sakura fell from that height and smashed into the ground.

She bumped right into yet another Sakura. "Tomoyo, what's wrong?" asked the new Sakura. "Why are you running?"

"NO MORE!" shouted Tomoyo as she shoved Sakura out of her path and kept running. "I can't take it any more!" She didn't turn around as a bolt of lightning flashed from the sky and struck Sakura, nor when the next Sakura was enveloped by darkness, speared with thousands of arrows of light, suffocated by flowers blooming on every inch of her skin, prematurely aged until nothing was left of her but dust....

*************************************************

Tomoyo woke up with a start and sat up, sweat dripping from her bangs. "Sakura!" she shouted.

"Whoa, whoa!" said Kero, fluttering to a safe distance. "You were having a nightmare!"

Tomoyo shuddered at the memory. "It was horrible, Kero. Sakura and I were in the park, and the Clow Cards were attacking her. They killed her over and over again, and I couldn't stop them."

It was Kero's turn to shudder. "Man, that's a real doozy. Good thing it was just a dream."

"It scared me, Kero. It felt too real to be a dream."

"It was probably the work of JOKER again," said Kero. "You wished Sakura could be with you all night, remember? JOKER probably used the power of DREAM to make you dream about Sakura."

"But why would it give me such a horrible dream?" asked Tomoyo.

"The DREAM card is pretty peculiar," Kero explained. "It always gives you a dream with a meaning of some kind, and it's usually not pleasant." He smiled smugly. "I tried to warn you not to make that wish, but did you listen to me? No...."

Tomoyo leapt out of bed and ran to her clothes drawers. "I have to get to Sakura right away!"

"No need to panic," said Kero. "It was just a dream."

"I think I know what it meant," said Tomoyo as she pulled off her pajamas, forgetting to ask Kero to turn away. "The power of JOKER is going to hurt Sakura if I don't find a way to stop it quickly!" She pulled a drawer open, grabbed whatever was at the top, and put it on without looking at it, only to find herself wearing a shirt around her waist. Blushing, she removed it and started to pay more attention to what she was doing.

Kero scratched his chin. "That is a good point," he agreed. "But like I said before, Sakura's the Master of the Clow, the one true Card Captor. It's her job to figure out how to deal with rogue Clow Cards. Yue wouldn't have accepted her if he didn't think she could do the job."

"Sakura can't use the Clow Cards anymore," Tomoyo reminded him. "The only one with any magical power left is me, and I can't control it."

"Well, maybe you can learn to control it," Kero suggested. "Then you wouldn't have to worry."

Tomoyo finished her outfit by pulling on her socks and grabbed Kero. "We're going to Sakura's house," she announced. "I have to see her right away!"

"What about breakfast?" moaned Kero as she carried him downstairs.

*************************************************

In the end, Tomoyo had to take the time to eat breakfast before her mother would let her go anywhere, but the entire ten minutes that it took her to wolf down the meal were focused on the real reason that she had to see Sakura so urgently. Her dream had shaken her horribly and left her with a horrible ache in her heart. She wanted to hold Sakura in her arms and feel her warmth, and know that everything would be all right; but it would be enough just to see her safe and sound. Spending time with Sakura and not having to watch her die would be heavenly. As long as she never had to watch Sakura die for real...!

The meal passed even more quickly thanks to Kero surreptitiously munching on it whenever Mrs. Daidouji's back was turned. "Ah, that's good stuff," he whispered quietly. "You're lucky to get such great food, kid."

"Did you say something, dear?" asked Mrs. Daidouji.

"No, mother," replied Tomoyo, her voice wavering slightly due to her overactive nerves. "May I go to Sakura's house?"

"Right now?" asked her mother. "You spent most of yesterday evening with her, and you were very tired when you came home. Perhaps it would be better if you rested today...."

"No!" shouted Tomoyo. "It's important!"

Her mother recoiled. "Tomoyo, what's gotten into you? Are you feeling well? You look pale."

Mrs. Daidouji put her hand on Tomoyo's forehead, but Tomoyo lightly pushed it away. "I'm fine," she assured her mother. "I just had a horrible nightmare last night, and I really want to see Sakura."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry!" Mrs. Daidouji wrapped her arms around Tomoyo in a hug. "Of course you can go. I'll call ahead and let her know that you're on your way."

"Thank you!" Tomoyo returned the hug quickly, then scooped Kero up and ran to the garage. A short limo ride later, she was standing out front of Sakura's house. She paused at the end of the walk and stroked Kero nervously.

"Hey that feels pretty good," Kero cooed. "But why are you stopping here?"

"I'm not sure I should go," replied Tomoyo.

"What, after you came all this way?"

"What if I make a bad wish and hurt Sakura?" asked Tomoyo. "It's too dangerous!"

"Nothing bad's gonna happen," Kero assured her. "Just go tell her how you feel and let her worry about dangerous Clow Cards."

"How I feel..." Tomoyo repeated slowly.

"Yeah, you know. The whole nightmare thing that was the reason you rushed over here."

"But I can't put her in danger!" Tomoyo protested again.

Kero sighed. "Look, forget about the danger for a moment. You want to see Sakura, right?"

Tomoyo nodded, feeling a tear run down her cheek.

"Then go ring the doorbell!" he commanded her. "This is something you need to do, so stop thinking about it and do it before JOKER decides to do something about it for you."

That did the trick. Tomoyo set her jaw and walked up to the front door. Her finger paused on the doorbell, and she had to remind herself why she was here. She was going to tell Sakura how she felt. Well, not the whole truth, anyway: she couldn't tell Sakura her deepest feelings, no matter how much she wanted to. The near-disaster with LIBRA had shown her that just blurting out her feelings was far too embarrassing. If there was a subtler yet direct way to express that feeling, she'd leap on the opportunity in a second, but for now –

Sakura opened the door, surprising her. "Tomoyo, good mor- are those for me?"

"Are what for you?" asked Tomoyo, adjusting her grip on the bouquet of roses and box of chocolates in her hands.

"You brought me flowers?" Sakura reached out and took the bouquet from Tomoyo. "They're beautiful. But what are they for?"

Still confused by the presence of the gifts, Tomoyo blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "They're because I love you."

Sakura's face turned a deep red. "Um... thank you," she said, toeing the floor.

Tomoyo's face felt like it was on fire. What had she done? She'd just spoiled her most precious and beautiful secret and treated Sakura like... a boyfriend! She could have died from embarrassment. She wanted the ground to open under her feet and swallow her so she wouldn't have to look at Sakura any –

The flowers hit the ground as Sakura grabbed Tomoyo by the elbows, knocking the chocolates from her hand. "Tomoyo, hang on!"

Tomoyo started to ask what was wrong, but the feeling of something cold and hard pressing on her ankles stopped her. She reflexively looked down to see herself standing knee-deep in a whirling pit of sand. The box of chocolates that had landed beside her submerged quickly as she watched, and in a horrifying instant, she realized that she would be next. She shrieked in terror and grabbed Sakura's sleeves for support. "Sakura, help me!"

Kero grabbed Tomoyo's collar and lent what little strength he had to the effort. "I dunno what you wished for this time, kid, but you're really going to be in over your head in a few minutes!"

What she wished for.... The blush returned to Tomoyo's face. This had been her wish exactly. She'd been so concerned about Sakura's life, but now she was the one in danger because of her stupid desires.

Tomoyo continued to sink into the sand despite Sakura's best effort. "It's too strong!" Sakura groaned. "I can't pull you out!"

Tomoyo hung her head. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "This is all my fault."

"It's not your fault!" Sakura shot back forcefully. "JOKER is the one using its magic!"

Touya's voice cut in from the top of the stairs before Tomoyo could reply. "Hey, what's going on down there?"

"Nothing!" Sakura replied hastily.

"It's awfully loud for nothing," he called down. "Sounded like a scream."

Sakura glanced worriedly over her shoulder. "Touya's coming downstairs! What are we going to do? We can't let him see this!"

"Step outside and close the door!" urged Kero.

"If I do that, I'll have to let go of Tomoyo!"

Waist deep in the sand, Tomoyo closed her eyes. "JOKER," she whispered. "I know you want to help me. Make Sakura strong enough to pull me out of here!"

Sakura fell on her back with a cry of surprise as Tomoyo popped instantly free of the pit and landed on top of her. Kero leapt for the front door and slammed it shut, landing on the floor just as Touya rounded the corner. He eyed the girls suspiciously. "What kind of game are you playing, anyway?"

"It's a girl game," Sakura replied with a nervous chuckle. "You wouldn't like it."

Touya snorted and looked at Kero, who was lying on his back in the middle of the scattered bouquet. "Better clean that mess up," he said. "Yukito's coming over in a few minutes."

Hearts danced in Sakura's eyes. "Yukito's coming over?"

"We're starting a new part-time job this afternoon, so we decided to meet here and get ready together," he explained. "So you two had better move your 'girl game' upstairs to your room." With that, he shook his head and moved on to the kitchen.

Sakura swooned. "Yukito's coming over...." She sighed happily.

Kero sat up, pushing aside a crushed rose, and cleared his throat. "I think we may have a problem," he announced.

Tomoyo stood up and helped Sakura to her feet. "What problem?" she asked.

Kero fluttered up to the doorknob and pulled the door open. "This," he said, pointing to the swirling pit of sand on the front step.

Sakura gasped. "We have to cover it up before he comes!"

"I wouldn't advise that," said Kero. "What if he DOESN'T see it and steps into it?"

Sakura choked back a scream. "Oh no! He'd die!"

"We should direct him to the back door," advised Tomoyo. "That way, there's no risk of him stepping into the sand."

"It could still be a problem if he sees it, though," Kero noted. "It could blow the secret of the Clow Cards wide open."

Sakura stepped carefully around the pit to investigate it from outside. "How will we hide it from him?" she asked. "It's easy to see even from here."

"Hide what from whom?" Yukito innocently asked as he rounded the corner at the far end of the walk.

Sakura cried excitedly as she ran to Yukito and leapt into his arms, placing her head right in front of his eyes. "Yukito! What a surprise!"

Yukito chuckled and tried to put Sakura down, but she shifted in his grip and hung on doggedly. "Didn't Touya tell you I was coming over?" he asked.

Sakura shook her head.

"Well, you seemed to be expecting someone," he said, leaning down to deposit Sakura on the ground. "Would you mind letting go of me? You've grown so big that I can hardly hold you up!"

"But it's been so long since I've seen you!" Sakura protested, clinging tightly to his neck.

Meanwhile, Kero attached himself to Tomoyo's back to avoid being seen. "Can you think of any way to hide this pit before he spots it?" he asked.

Tomoyo shook her head. "I wish I had an idea, but I can't think of anything," she whispered.

"What about JOKER's power?" asked Kero. "You could cover it with an illusion."

"I think that power's already used up," replied Tomoyo.

Yukito's smile diminished only slightly as he reached up to pry Sakura's arms from around him. "You're hurting me," he said quietly.

Losing her grip and still no closer to coming up with a way to keep him from seeing the sandpit, Sakura switched mental tacks. "Um, Touya asked me to tell you to go in through the back door today."

Yukito finally succeeded in dislodging her, but knelt to remain at her level and didn't take his eyes off her. "I thought Touya didn't tell you that I was coming over."

"Well, he said IF you came over," she filled in quickly. "Tomoyo and I made a bit of a mess in the hallway and haven't had time to clean it up yet."

"Well, okay," he relented at last, ruffling Sakura's hair affectionately. "If Touya said so, I guess I'd better." He stood up and took one look at the house. "My, that's odd."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat. "What's odd?" she asked nervously.

"There's a shadow on the front of the house," he replied.

"A shadow?" Sakura repeated, turning to confirm his assertion visually.

Tomoyo tried to smile casually as she felt the twin gazes on her, but as she looked up at the two people, she realized that they couldn't see her at all. It was then that she noticed that the area around her had become very dark, likely obscuring both herself and the sandpit.

Yukito shrugged. "It must be a sunspot or a cloud, or something like that."

Sakura tittered with nervous relief. "Yeah, that's pretty strange," she agreed. "Anyway, you should probably go around to the back if Touya's expecting you."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Yukito headed to the back of the house without acknowledging Tomoyo's presence.

"Whew, that was close," Kero sighed quietly. "It's too bad he can't become Yue. That would have made this whole thing a lot easier to deal with, not to mention the advice he could give us about JOKER."

Sakura waited until Yukito had rounded the corner of the house before calling to Tomoyo. "Tomoyo, are you there?"

Tomoyo carefully stepped to solid ground outside, pulling the front door closed behind her. "I'm here," she replied. "It's just very dark."

"I guess JOKER found a way to hide the pit after all," said Kero as Tomoyo stepped into the light. She looked back to see that the entire area around the door was shrouded in such a deep darkness that nothing within could be seen. "This looks like the work of SHADOW," Kero assessed.

"It worked pretty well," said Sakura. "Nobody will be able to see anything in that shadow."

"But the pit is still there," Tomoyo reminded her. "Anyone could step into it, now that it can't be seen."

Sakura considered the situation carefully. "When Li and I fought the SAND card before, I used WATERY to get the sand wet, and then Li froze it with FREEZE. Do you think that would work?"

"But you can't use the Clow Cards," Tomoyo pointed out.

"You can, Tomoyo," returned Kero. "Try to get JOKER to use those powers."

Tomoyo hesitated, but the possible consequences of leaving the pit as it was far outweighed the risks of using JOKER again. "JOKER, use the powers of WATERY and FREEZE to freeze this sand," she commanded.

"I sure hope it listens to you," said Kero. "There's no guarantee that JOKER follows direct orders, even from you."

As they watched, a ball of water appeared over the sand and then poured down upon the swirling pit. The sibilant hiss of the shifting sand fell silent as the water froze, halting the sand's movement.

"Then again, it could work just fine," Kero continued. He floated into the shadow and landed next to the slight conical depression that was all that remained of the pit, carefully testing its surface with a paw before placing his entire weight upon it. "Yep, it's completely solid," he assessed.

"Won't the summer heat eventually melt it again?" asked Sakura.

"Not very hot in this shadow," replied Kero as he emerged from the darkness. "Besides, it takes a lot more than plain old heat to melt FREEZE. Nothing short of magical fire will break this spell. And I don't think we'll see any of that as long as JOKER's blocking all the magic in the area and it's already used the power of FIREY."

"Then you think it's safe?" asked Tomoyo.

"The worst that's going to happen is that someone twists their ankle on the uneven ground," affirmed Kero. "And considering the alternative, that's not such a bad outcome."

Tomoyo sighed gratefully. "Then it's over. Nobody got hurt this time."

"But you nearly died!" cried Sakura. "I thought you said that JOKER wasn't going to hurt you!"

"That was what Kero said during the reading," Tomoyo recalled.

Kero shrugged. "The sand probably wouldn't have actually killed you, even if it had swallowed you," he said. "Maybe it would have spit you out, or maybe it was counting on the fact that Sakura was going to rescue you using POWER."

"But there's no guarantee?" asked Sakura.

"Who knows what JOKER's really thinking?" Kero replied. "It could very well be that if it thought Tomoyo truly wanted to die, it would kill her."

"Why did you wish for SAND to swallow you anyway, Tomoyo?" Sakura asked curiously.

Tomoyo felt the blush return to her face. "It was an accident," she replied softly.

Kero picked up on Tomoyo's discomfort and diplomatically changed the subject. "Well, one thing is for sure: Tomoyo's not as safe as we thought before. And if JOKER's magic can target her directly like this, then nobody's safe. If she so much as loses her temper with someone, they might end up dead. Including herself."

"No way!" Sakura protested. "Tomoyo wouldn't do that!"

"It's true," Tomoyo put in. "Last night, I felt so bad that I almost wished I was dead. And just now...."

"The important thing," Kero interrupted, saving her from an embarrassing revelation, "is that JOKER is more dangerous than we gave it credit for, and Tomoyo can't control its effects well enough to prevent it from hurting anyone."

"I want to find a way to stop it," Tomoyo said determinedly. "I don't want to wait until it uses up its power. Who knows who might be hurt next?"

"Maybe you could order it to use the rest of its powers right now," Kero suggested.

"That's too risky," Sakura countered. "Anything could go wrong. And some of the powers are too dangerous to use, even if they're controlled. SHOT and ARROW could kill someone!"

Kero scratched his chin. "That's a good point," he agreed. "We'll need to find a way to fight JOKER directly, then. We'll have to drag it out and capture it before it can use any more of its powers."

"But we don't know how to do that," Tomoyo added glumly.

The front door opened, and Touya and Yukito emerged from the house wearing matching striped uniforms and aprons. Kero quickly ducked out of sight behind Tomoyo.

Touya's eyes focused on Sakura as he walked across the frozen sand and exited the shadow. "So, I told Yuki to come in through the back door, did I?" he asked with the necessary good-natured malice toward his sister.

"Well, that was part of our game," Sakura inaccurately explained.

Touya crossed his arms, not buying the story, but Yukito chuckled. "Kids will be kids," he said jovially. "Good morning, Tomoyo," he added, favoring her with a smile. "I didn't see you when I arrived."

"I was inside the house," Tomoyo explained.

Touya rolled his eyes. "I'll be back before dinner," he announced. "Yuki's coming back with me, and there's enough for your friend if she wants to stay too. If you need me before then, I'll be at the box lunch shop just on the far side of the Tsukimine Shrine. You know the one I'm talking about?"

Sakura nodded. "Have fun at work! Bye, Yukito!"

Yukito waved as he and Touya made their way to the street. "Enjoy your game!" he called back.

Sakura sighed happily. "Yukito...."

Kero floated in front of Sakura's face and groaned. "She's forgotten all about JOKER."

"I didn't forget!" Sakura protested. "I was just really happy that I got to see him!"

"Um..." said Tomoyo, hoping to get their attention. "I had a thought when your brother mentioned the Tsukimine Shrine. Perhaps Miss Mizuki would be able to figure out a way to fight JOKER."

Realization dawned on Kero's face. "Of course! That woman's got some kind of power over the Clow Cards, and JOKER should be no exception."

"It's on the way to the park," added Sakura. "Since we're going there to watch Yamazaki's model plane anyway, it can't hurt to stop and ask about JOKER while we're out."

"I suppose we can take a little time for a detour," agreed Kero.

"I'm sorry you have to go out of your way for me," Tomoyo apologized, hanging her head.

"It's not out of our way," Sakura insisted. "Besides, I meant to go see Miss Mizuki before she leaves anyway, and I just kept forgetting. So this is the chance I've been waiting for."

"Are you sure?" asked Tomoyo. "I feel...." There were no words for it. How could she describe the sudden heaviness in her heart? It couldn't be guilt, but the feeling was similar....

"What? What is it?" Sakura asked with concern.

Once again, Kero picked up on Tomoyo's discomfort and intervened. "I think it's about something that happened last night," he said, lying for Sakura's benefit. "Why don't you go get ready to leave, while I talk to her about it?"

Sakura hesitated, wondering what was wrong with her best friend and knowing that if she left, she'd never have the chance to find out. But she, too, could sense Tomoyo's need. "All right," she relented. "I'll go get the Clow Cards and change into my sundress." She stepped through the shadow and into the house, obliviously trampling the scattered flowers in the front hall as she went.

Tomoyo shuddered as if it had truly been her love crushed under Sakura's feet. Kero landed on her shoulder and sighed. "Come on, kid. This new outlook just isn't your style. Where's that smile I've never seen you without?"

"I don't know," replied Tomoyo. "I just feel so bad about all the trouble that I'm putting you and Sakura through. I can't help it."

"There's nothing to feel bad about," Kero reassured her. "Remember, JOKER is the one causing all the trouble. It's just using you as its tool. And as for Sakura and myself, we're standing by you because we're your friends. We're not going to let you face this problem by yourself."

She didn't feel much better for all that, but Kero's concern was real, and she would feel even worse if she kept pushing her emotional problems on him as well as the magical one. She forced a smile. "Thank you," she said.

Kero's eyes narrowed. Tomoyo could tell that her act hadn't convinced him, but he was letting it go for her sake. She was grateful for that, but it still didn't lift the weight from her heart. What he had said was probably true, but she would have to hear the words directly from Sakura's mouth.

Just then, Sakura emerged from the house wearing a light summer outfit and her backpack. "I made us all some sandwiches earlier this morning," she announced. "Kero, you can eat yours in the pack if you want, but leave some for me and Tomoyo, okay?"

"Yay! Sandwiches!" cheered Kero, diving into the backpack headfirst. "Hey! You've got lemonade in here too!"

"Don't be a pig, Kero," she warned him. "That has to be enough for all three of us!"

Tomoyo couldn't help laughing as Kero and Sakura got back to their normal routines, instantly forgetting about her troubles. It wouldn't last long, but it was a good feeling all the same. The question she had been about to ask Sakura died on her lips, and her smile returned, far more genuine than before. Kero popped his head up just long enough to see that smile and return it warmly before returning to his feast. 

Sakura extended her arm to Tomoyo. "Are you ready to go?"

Tomoyo sighed happily as she took Sakura's hand. She had to keep a smile on her face, if only to prevent her friends from worrying about her. "Let's go," she said, dispelling the emotion from her voice. She would just have to trust in the strength of their friendship – at least until they got to the Tsukimine Shrine and all the trouble was behind them.

  



	6. Tomoyo, Yamazaki, and the Model Plane

52 Curses

Chapter 6 – Tomoyo, Yamazaki, and the Model Plane

Tomoyo looked up at the torii that framed the walkway at the entrance to the Tsukimine Shrine. "I never thought I would be so glad to be here," she announced.

"I hope Miss Mizuki can figure out a way to get rid of JOKER," said Sakura. "If she can't, then I don't know what else we can do."

"Let's just ask her first, before we start assuming the worst," suggested Kero. "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it."

Sakura eagerly climbed the steps and set out along the stone walkway that led into the shrine grounds. Tomoyo followed timidly, a feeling of unease setting over her as she drew closer and closer to the archway. Suddenly, something felt very wrong with the place, as if she were no longer welcome there.

"Come on!" called Sakura. "We're almost there! Don't you want to be rid of JOKER forever?"

Tomoyo nodded. "Yes," she replied. It was a silly feeling, really, she told herself. There was nothing keeping her back but her own nervousness. She straightened her back and calmly strode through the arch.

In that instant, the world went dark.

Tomoyo's heart raced as she turned around, searching for a hint of light, but she could see nothing. Even her own body was invisible in the total darkness. Just like her dream.... "Sakura!" she cried frantically. "Where are you?"

"Tomoyo?" The reply seemed to come from miles away, but Tomoyo pointed herself in the direction it had come from and started running, wanting desperately to be with Sakura, even if it would mean having to watch her die as in the dream. The loneliness of the darkness was overwhelming. She needed to throw her arms around Sakura and feel her friend's embrace in return, and then everything would be okay.

She smacked into the form of a person in the darkness, and they both fell to the ground. "Tomoyo, is that you?" asked Sakura.

"Sakura!" Tomoyo cried gratefully, pulling Sakura into a tight hug. "Don't let go of me, whatever you do!"

"I won't let you go," Sakura assured her. She sat up, pulling Tomoyo with her. "This is the power of DARK," she said with certainty. "You should be able to use LIGHT to get rid of it."

Tomoyo nodded, even though she knew that Sakura couldn't see it. "JOKER, use LIGHT to banish the darkness," she commanded.

The two girls waited in the darkness, but not a speck of light appeared.

Sakura's arms tightened around Tomoyo. "It didn't work..." she said, her voice trembling.

Tomoyo's heartbeat jumped again as Sakura's body pressed close against her, and she realized that she didn't care whether or not she could see. True, JOKER could use the power of LIGHT, and then they'd be able to see again. But then Sakura would let go of her, and they'd go see Miss Mizuki, and the moment would be forever lost. She squeezed Sakura tighter, enjoying the warmth they were sharing. She couldn't let it end just yet. "I can't," she sighed. "I'm not scared of the dark. Not when I have you with me."

"But we'll never find Miss Mizuki if we can't see," Sakura reminded her.

"Just hold me a while longer," said Tomoyo. "Until I can use the power of LIGHT. Then we can go."

"But we have to be at the park soon!" argued Sakura. "If you can't use JOKER's power, then we'll have to find a way out of this darkness ourselves." She started to stand up, but Tomoyo pulled her back to the ground.

"Don't go, please!" Tomoyo begged, holding Sakura so tightly that the older girl could barely breathe. "I don't want to lose you again!"

"I'm not going anywhere!" said Sakura, pushing Tomoyo's arms away just a bit. "I just want us both to stand up and move somewhere, preferably somewhere where there's light."

Tomoyo felt her face burn with a blush as the girls stood up together, their arms never leaving each other. She was embarrassing herself again, as surely as she had with the flowers, but the darkness was giving her an excuse this time. She couldn't wish for it to go away and let Sakura see her flushed face.

"Hey, is Tomoyo there?" asked a voice a few inches in front of her face. Tomoyo screamed and jumped back, nearly pulling herself and Sakura to the ground again. "I'll take that as a yes," the voice continued.

"It's Li!" Sakura cried excitedly, stretching out an arm to pull him into the group hug. "How did you find us?"

"I felt Tomoyo's presence when she got close to the shrine," he replied. "I went to go catch her before she got there, but then this darkness came over me and I couldn't sense her presence anymore."

"I was trying to feel for Sakura, but found the kid instead," said Kero's voice from the vicinity of Li's head. "It took both of us together to find you girls."

"Tomoyo can't use the power of LIGHT to get us out of this," Sakura told them. "I don't know how we can escape."

"Just head for the street," said Li. "That should be enough."

"Which way is the street?" asked Sakura.

"Pick a direction," replied Li. "And you might want to let go of me and just hold my hand. Or my sleeve, or something," he added hastily, as if trying to cover up an embarrassing statement. "We can't walk around all bunched up like this."

Tomoyo felt Li move away from her as Sakura grabbed his hand, and reluctantly released her own hug and took Sakura's other hand.

"Lead the way, Tomoyo," commanded Li. "You're the one JOKER's interested in."

"Any way will work?" Tomoyo repeated. Li favored her with an affirmative grunt. "Then we'll go this way." She started to walk straight forward, letting Sakura and Li fall into step behind her. Four steps later, the trio found themselves standing under the entryway arch of the Tsukimine Shrine.

Sakura collapsed into a sitting position on the steps, letting go of the others' hands. "That was scary!" she exclaimed.

Kero fluttered over to Tomoyo's shoulder. "First SAND, now DARK... what's gotten into your head, kid? How come you're wishing all this bad stuff on yourself all of a sudden?"

Tomoyo shuddered, a result of residual fear from the darkness as well as the slight shock of Kero's touch. "I don't know," she replied. "I don't remember wishing for darkness."

"Well, you must have," retorted Kero. "Because that darkness sure wasn't natural."

"I don't think she wished for the darkness at all," announced Li. "That was JOKER's doing, completely on its own."

Kero darted up to Li's face. "What makes you so sure of that?" he asked. "And how come you suddenly became the expert on how JOKER works, anyway?"

Li casually batted Kero aside. "I had the same idea you three did, and came to see Miss Mizuki earlier this morning. She said that she didn't know exactly what was going on, but that she was sorry that she wouldn't get to see Tomoyo again until the problem was resolved."

"I don't understand," said Sakura.

"She knew that this was going to happen," explained Li. "She knew that JOKER wouldn't let Tomoyo approach the shrine."

"But why not?" asked Sakura. "I thought JOKER was supposed to be helping Tomoyo!"

"But you want to stop it, don't you?" Li asked rhetorically. "That's why you want to see Miss Mizuki. I think JOKER's afraid that if Tomoyo makes it to the shrine, then Miss Mizuki will separate it from her and it won't be able to help her any more. So it's using its power to stop her from getting there."

"It can't do that!" Sakura protested.

Li shrugged. "It's got magic power, and we don't. I'd say it can pretty well do whatever it wants."

"But we escaped from the darkness," Sakura shot back. "It can't use that power again, can it?"

"No, it can't," Li agreed.

"Then maybe we can get to the shrine now," suggested Sakura. She took Tomoyo's hand. "Come on, let's try."

Tomoyo pulled back. "I'm scared!"

"Don't be scared," Sakura cooed reassuringly. "Everything will be fine. Li and I are both here, and we'll keep you safe."

"I don't want to go back in there," Li said flatly, crossing his arms. "JOKER's got a lot of power left, and I don't feel like getting killed over somebody else's problem."

"She's your friend too!" snapped Sakura. "We have to help her get rid of JOKER!"

"Fine, go get killed if you want," said Li. He sat down heavily on the steps and faced away. "Just leave me out of it."

"Come on," urged Sakura, tugging on Tomoyo's arm. "We don't need his help anyway."

Tomoyo swallowed nervously and peered up at the archway. It loomed intimidatingly over her, daring her to cross into the holy ground where JOKER waited to attack her with another power. She squeezed Sakura's hand, and felt a warm pressure in return. Yes, everything would be okay as long as she was with Sakura. "All right," she acquiesced, walking up the stairs.

As they approached the torii, Tomoyo again began to have second thoughts. That was the line; once they stepped through the structure, they would be in JOKER's territory. Tomoyo planted her feet firmly at the base of the arch and stopped. "No! I won't go!"

"We have to!" said Sakura, pulling mightily on Tomoyo's arm. Tomoyo lost her balance and fell across the threshold, landing on her face in the shrine grounds. Sakura gasped and helped her up. "I'm sorry, Tomoyo!" she apologized, brushing some of the dust off Tomoyo's clothes. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine," replied Tomoyo, looking around for any signs of JOKER's presence. Nothing out of the ordinary caught her eye immediately, giving her a bit of time to calm down. Perhaps Sakura was right, and the darkness had been the extent of JOKER's disobedience. "Let's keep going."

"Hey, watch out!" Li shouted from the torii. "At your feet!"

Tomoyo felt something like a feather brush her ankle and jumped back, looking down at the ground to see what had touched her. Wisps of green mist were swirling up from the cracks between the paving stones, forming tendrils that were reaching for her and Sakura. In a flash of sickly green and red, a scene from her dream passed before her eyes. "Sakura, look out!" she shouted. "It's MIST!"

"Where?" asked Sakura, spinning around to search for it while oblivious of the death reaching for her legs. Without stopping to think, Tomoyo tackled Sakura, pushing her away from the deadly vapor. Her momentum sent the two girls rolling through the arch and down the steps to land in a heap at the bottom.

"Told you so," Li said without moving to offer any help.

Sakura peeled herself away from Tomoyo and turned to look up at the torii. The shrine grounds were covered in six feet of acidic mist that ended at the torii as if against an invisible wall. She stood up and pushed a pair of imaginary sleeves up her arms. "All right!" she said boldly, pointing toward the arch. "This is what we'll do! Tomoyo, have JOKER use WINDY to blow the mist away, and then we'll –"

"NO!" Tomoyo screamed more forcefully than she'd intended. "No more!"

Sakura turned to argue, but froze in place when she laid eyes on Tomoyo.

"I don't want to fight JOKER any more," Tomoyo continued, choking back tears. "It's too powerful, and I'm scared of what it will do next."

"Tomoyo, your ankle!" cried Sakura, pointing to the place where the mist had touched Tomoyo. The younger girl looked down to see a stream of blood running from the wound, pooling on the sidewalk under her foot. She gasped at the sight and felt faint, but Li was kneeling beside her and rested his hand on her back to keep her upright. With his other hand, he deftly removed his cloth belt and wound it around her ankle several times, pulling it as tight as possible before tying it off.

Sakura's fingers clenched tightly around the handkerchief that she'd only halfway pulled out of her own pocket. She let it go, then sat down beside Tomoyo to hug her. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. "You were right all along. I should have listened to you. But I didn't even think about how you felt. I was pretending that it was my own quest and dragging you into danger."

"It's all right, Sakura," Tomoyo whispered back, patting her friend on the back. "I understand. I, too, was excited about getting to see Miss Mizuki and being free of JOKER's power. But I have to accept that it can't happen and just move on."

"Speaking of moving on," Li put in as he stood up, "we'd better get moving if we don't want to miss seeing Yamazaki's model plane."

"We can't go anywhere!" Sakura protested. "You saw Tomoyo's ankle! How do you expect her to walk?"

"Is she just going to sit there all day?" he shot back.

Tomoyo waved off Sakura's retort and got painfully to her feet. "I'm fine," she said, intending it as a white lie until she realized that there was actually very little pain. She took a few steps without stumbling and turned back to her friends. "I'll be able to walk."

"Is that a surprise?" asked Kero as he floated over the torii and came to rest on Sakura's backpack. "I take it the mist kept you guys out?"

"Where were you when it almost killed us, Kero?" demanded Sakura.

"I flew on ahead to the shrine," he replied. "Didn't see any influence from JOKER until I got back. So, what happened to Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo extended her leg to show Kero the bloody bandage. "MIST got me."

Kero swooped down for a closer look. "Ew... that looks pretty nasty. Are you sure you should be walking around?"

"It doesn't hurt much," she replied. "I don't think it's as serious as it looks."

"For your sake, I hope not," said Kero. "Looks like JOKER's really pulling out all the stops here."

"It could have killed both of you if it wanted to," Li said darkly. "The darkness was meant to be a warning, but the mist was its way of showing you it means business. I don't think it will hesitate to use something even more deadly if you try again."

"I don't want to try again," Tomoyo said firmly. "I just want to go see Yamazaki's plane and –"

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked after Tomoyo broke off.

"What if JOKER does something around Yamazaki and his friends?" Tomoyo asked worriedly.

"I wouldn't be too worried about that," replied Kero. "You'll be having fun, right?"

"Right...."

"From what I've seen, JOKER never does anything when you're having a good time," Kero continued. "If you like things the way they are, you don't wish for anything, so JOKER doesn't act up."

"I wish I could believe that," said Tomoyo.

Kero smiled dryly. "Do you think I'm lying?" he asked.

Tomoyo shook her head. "Why would you lie to me?"

"Then that proves I'm not lying," he concluded. "After that wish, if I hadn't been telling the truth, the power of LIBRA would have told you I was lying."

"LIBRA?" repeated Tomoyo. "But I –" She quickly stopped before she could embarrass herself yet again by alluding to the effects of LIBRA that Sakura had forgotten. "Yes, you're right," she agreed meekly. "I would have known."

Li turned away from the girls. "We're going to be late if we don't get moving now. I'm going, whether you want to come or not."

"Wait, Li!" pleaded Sakura. "We're coming! Right, Tomoyo?" She extended a hand to Tomoyo, who grasped it with some reservation and allowed herself to be led away from the shrine where she had staked her last, failed hope.

*************************************************

Tomoyo looked forward to the park during the entire trip, hoping that Kero had been right in supposing that JOKER would behave once she was happy; but as they approached their destination, it became clear that happiness was beyond her grasp. Even after they'd arrived, the lively yet peaceful atmosphere did little to brighten Tomoyo's mood. The knowledge that JOKER would strike at her directly if it felt threatened took precedence over any elation that the setting might have brought her.

Yet all was forgotten when they finally arrived at lakeside, where Yamazaki was getting his model plane ready for takeoff. All of their friends were already gathered around the plane: Chiharu and Yamazaki were attaching tubes to the front of the fuselage; Rika Sasaki and Naoko Yanagisawa, good friends of Chiharu, were watching the procedure with interest; and Mikado Hayashi and Jono Sunamori, two boys from the class who were probably friends of Yamazaki's, were eagerly exchanging facts about the real-life counterpart that the model was based on.

Naoko was the first to spot the new arrivals. "Hey, everyone!" she called, waving with one hand while she pushed her glasses up with the other. "The plane's almost ready to launch!"

"It's a Cessna Caravan!" Hayashi explained as Tomoyo and her friends joined the group. "It's amphibious, so it can take off and land in the water!"

"Wow!" exclaimed Sakura. "But wouldn't it sink?"

"See the special pontoons?" asked Sunamori, pointing to the large canoe-like legs that surrounded the plane's wheels. "Those float, just like boats, and hold the plane up."

Rika nudged Naoko with her elbow. "And I thought Yamazaki made up stories that were hard to believe," she whispered.

"Actually, I think they're telling the truth," Naoko whispered back. "I've seen these amphibious planes on television."

"I saw this exact type of plane used in a spy movie," Hayashi pointed out.

Yamazaki pulled the tubes free and packed them into the wooden box that they were connected to. "True, the Cessna is one of the greatest planes in the world, but it still owes its existence to the Wright Brothers of America, who built the first airplane out of aluminum cans and turtle wax. It was so big and heavy that it took five propellers to get it off the ground. In fact, they couldn't carry enough fuel to operate it, so they had to redesign the engines to run on nothing but air."

Chiharu shook her head sadly. "That's ridiculous. If that type of engine existed, why wouldn't we still be using it today?"

Yamazaki held up a finger. "It overheated easily, and that would set the entire plane on fire."

Chiharu sighed and handed the remote to Yamazaki. "Right, right."

"Just fly the plane already!" said Hayashi. "I want to see it in the air!"

"Yes, I'd like to see it fly as well," agreed Naoko.

Yamazaki pulled a metal object that resembled a corkscrew out of the wooden box and inserted the protruding end into an outlet at the front of the plane. As he pressed a button on the lighter, the propeller leapt to life with a loud hum. Sakura screamed and jumped backwards.

Sunamori chuckled. "It's not going to bite you," he assured her.

"I thought I was going to get sucked into the propeller," Sakura whined.

Chiharu lightly smacked Yamazaki's shoulder. "Now see what your stories have done?"

Hayashi reached down and ran his hand across the plane's back, as if he were petting a cat. "You don't have to worry, Sakura. Planes like this one only attack people they don't like. And it's not smart enough to figure out that I'm really a AAAAAAAAH!" He screamed and leapt back, holding the empty long sleeve of his windbreaker in the only hand he had left.

"WAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sakura screamed, burying her face in Tomoyo's chest. "The propeller cut off Hayashi's hand!"

Hayashi laughed and pulled his sleeve down, exposing the untouched hand within. "You're so easy to tease, Sakura," he said jovially.

"Knock it off, jerk," snapped Li. "That wasn't funny."

Tomoyo rubbed Sakura's head gently and cooed, "It's all right, Sakura. He's not hurt. He was only playing a trick on you."

Sakura turned around to examine Hayashi through tear-filled eyes. "He was?" When she saw the amused expression on his face, she leapt at him, beating him playfully with her fists. "That was really rotten, Hayashi! I thought you were really hurt!"

Hayashi cowered from Sakura's mock fury. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry! It was a joke!"

Sunamori clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "You just lost a lot of compatibility points, dude."

Chiharu groaned. "Your friends are weird, Yamazaki. Now I remember why we don't hang out with them very often."

Undaunted, Yamazaki manipulated the remote control, and the plane slowly turned to face the lake. "It's too dangerous to fly where there are people," he explained, "but Chiharu's father knows someone on the city council who got me a license to fly over the lake."

Hayashi nodded. "That's why you've got to use the amphibious plane, right?"

Yamazaki nodded. "I've got a few other planes at home, including trick planes, but I can only fly them at the airfield outside the city."

As the propeller turned away from her, Sakura gathered her courage and stepped closer to watch the plane take off. Tomoyo also moved closer, wishing she'd thought to bring her video camera with her. Everyone else had to back out of the way as Yamazaki maneuvered the plane into the water, then flipped a switch on the remote. The propeller instantly picked up speed, doubling in volume and startling Sakura again. However, nobody paid her any mind, because they were fixated on the plane as it smoothly accelerated, skimming across the surface of the lake. Three quarters of the way to the far shore, the plane rose from the water and soared into the sky, sailing over the heads of the people below. Everyone within sight of the lake looked up in awe as the plane flew higher and higher, circling over the lake.

"Wow!" the group surrounding Yamazaki enthused in unison, except Li.

"That's nothing," said Yamazaki. "Even though it's not really suited for tricks, this plane can do a bit more than just fly around." As he finished his sentence, the plane turned a perfect barrel roll, then performed a half-loop and flipped over so that it was flying in the opposite direction.

Everyone applauded, although Li didn't seem to put much heart into it. "That's incredible!" Sakura congratulated Yamazaki.

Yamazaki shrugged. "It just takes a bit of practice. I've only been flying for a year. There are some pilots in Europe who can actually work the controls with only their toes."

"Don't they use special controllers for that?" asked Rika. Hayashi and Sunamori grinned knowingly.

"Sometimes they do," Yamazaki conceded. "And then there's an air troupe in Germany made up of animal trainers. They trained mice to walk on the wings while the planes were in the air."

"Did any of the mice get sucked into the propellers?" asked Sakura.

"A few did," Yamazaki admitted as he brought the plane around for another pass. "Then they started a more meticulous training program, and gave the mice tiny parachutes in case of trouble. After that, they never had any accidents."

Sakura sighed with relief. "That's good news. Those poor mice...."

Li shook his head disdainfully. "What a bunch of lies," he said. "Mice don't have hands to pull the ripcords on the parachutes."

"Perhaps they used their tails," Naoko suggested.

Chiharu sighed. "No, I'm pretty sure it's another lie." She tugged on Yamazaki's ear. "You're going to stop lying one of these days, right?"

Yamazaki pulled the plane through another loop. "Just be glad I didn't bring my authentic World War I fighter plane, or I'd have to strafe all of you with gunfire."

"He doesn't really have a plane that shoots," Chiharu advised the others before anyone could take him seriously again.

Tomoyo just stood back and took it all in. Kero had been right; being with friends and enjoying herself had pushed all of her troublesome desires from her mind. It felt good to live in the moment, when that moment wasn't full of danger for herself and Sakura. And she really was enjoying watching Yamazaki's plane carve its way through the lower atmosphere with its total disregard for gravity, as utterly carefree as its pilot. Yamazaki was so lucky to have a model plane of his own, and the skill to fly it so adeptly. She would give anything to be able to fly a plane like that....

There was something in her hands. Something slightly heavy, and rather box-shaped. She tilted her head down to look at it, but a sudden wave of dizziness came over her, and her eyes couldn't focus on the object. The kids behind her were cheering excitedly, begging Yamazaki to do another trick... but wasn't everyone in front of her?

"Hey, what happened to the remote?" asked Tomoyo's voice from behind her. She spun around to see an exact copy of herself standing next to Li, staring back at her with a puzzled look on her face, complete with a somehow familiar squint.

"What do you mean?" Chiharu asked the other Tomoyo. "Yamazaki's still holding it. Where else would it be?"

"I'm not -" the other Tomoyo began, trailing off as she followed Chiharu's finger, which was pointing at the real Tomoyo. "What am I doing over there?" She cocked her head as if hearing something strange. "And what's with my voice?"

"It sounds perfectly fine to me," said Rika. "Is something wrong?"

Confused, Tomoyo tried to ask what was going on. "I - " That was all she could get out before her throat seized up. Her voice was a lot deeper than she was used to. What was happening to her?

A hand clapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, dude, should the plane be doing that?" asked Hayashi, pointing into the sky where the Cessna was wobbling unsteadily and careening to the left. Tomoyo jerked at his touch, and her thumb pressed a lever on the box in her hands. The plane suddenly spun wildly to the right and plunged toward the trees below.

"Oh no! The plane!" the other Tomoyo screamed, lunging toward the real Tomoyo.

"Watch out!" shouted Chiharu, pushing the impostor away. "Don't distract him while he's flying the plane! He knows what he's doing!"

At that moment, the pieces clicked together in Tomoyo's mind. A quick glance down at her body confirmed it; she had turned into Yamazaki. And presumably, the "other Tomoyo" was in fact Yamazaki in her own body. And the box in her hand was.... She frantically pushed at the controls on the remote, hoping to wrestle the plane under control, but it was diving fast, seconds away from crashing into a thick copse of trees. The people walking near its path screamed and dove out of the way.

Yamazaki gave up trying to fight his way past Chiharu and gestured wildly at Tomoyo. "The left lever! Pull it toward you!"

Tomoyo followed his instruction as quickly as she could, but it was far too late. She watched in horror as the plane started to arc gently away from the ground and flew right into the trees. "Don't crash!" she begged it aloud. "Please don't crash!"

Yamazaki covered his - her? - eyes as the plane vanished below the treeline. However, the anticipated crash never came. Instead, the motor hummed steadily as the plane continued its uninterrupted flight through the trees and rose into the sky again, completely intact.

"Wow, that was amazing!" cheered Naoko. "I thought it was going to hit the trees!"

Chiharu's jaw dropped in shock, and her grip loosened enough to allow Yamazaki to wiggle past her. "What's going on?" he demanded of Tomoyo. "Who are you?"

"Please, don't let anyone else hear you," Tomoyo whispered. "Take the controls and I'll explain." Pushing the remote toward him, she raised her voice for everyone else's benefit. "Here, Tomoyo, would you like to try it?"

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Chiharu fumed as Yamazaki took the controls. "You don't even let ME fly your plane!"

"Just pretend to be Tomoyo," Tomoyo whispered to Yamazaki. "Your mind has been put in Tomoyo's body, but we can't let anyone else find out."

"Then... you're Tomoyo?" he whispered back. "What the heck's going on?"

"I really can't explain right now," she replied. "Can you please trust me and pretend to be me until I figure out what to do?"

Yamazaki sighed. "This has got to be some kind of dream... but I guess I have to go along with it."

"I need to pretend to teach you how to fly the plane," said Tomoyo. She raised her voice again as she pointed vaguely toward the remote. "You have to use that one there," she announced.

"Call it the throttle," Yamazaki hissed. "Tell me to pull it back."

"Pull back the throttle," Tomoyo repeated, pointing to the control that Yamazaki was already manipulating. "Try to keep the plane steady as you bring it around for a landing."

"No problem," replied Yamazaki. The plane circled the lake smoothly and began its landing approach.

"You have to talk like Tomoyo too," she whispered. "Don't say 'No problem,' say 'Okay.'"

"I can't believe I'm doing this," he groaned.

Everyone held their breath until the plane had touched down and slowed to a stop at the lake shore. Tomoyo carefully reached down to fish the plane out of the water, but froze as she saw her reflection on the water's surface. It was her own face, not Yamazaki's, that was looking back at her. She quickly scooped up the plane before anyone could notice the oddity, keeping her hand well clear of the propeller. "Good job, Tomoyo," she congratulated Yamazaki.

"That was amazing!" cheered Sakura. "I didn't know you could fly a model plane, Tomoyo!"

"I thought it took years of practice," said Naoko.

Tomoyo decided to intervene in the interest of keeping the secret safe. "It usually does," she explained, "but there are some people who have the Knack for it."

"The Knack?" asked Hayashi. "Isn't that an American rock group?"

"That's right," Tomoyo agreed, doing her best to stay true to Yamazaki's character. "But they got their name from a word that means 'unexplainable skill.' In this case, it means that Tomoyo had the inborn ability to pilot a plane just as well as I can."

"No fooling?" said Sunamori as he gazed inquisitively at Yamazaki. "Who would have pictured her as an ace pilot?"

"I could see it in her eyes," Tomoyo boasted. "They were just like the eyes of Attila the Hun, the first person ever known to have the Knack. His Knack, of course, was for the yo-yo. He invented more than twenty tricks that nobody since then has ever been able to duplicate."

"Not a bad story," said Sunamori. "I honestly have no idea whether you're lying or not."

"Okay, that's enough of that," Chiharu admonished Tomoyo, removing the remote from Yamazaki's hands and returning it to the person who looked like its rightful owner. "Let's just refuel the plane and get it back in the air."

"No, we can't do that!" Yamazaki protested. "She - I mean, he...."

"It's going to rain soon," Tomoyo said quickly, silently begging JOKER to make it happen. "I picked a bad day for flying."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rika. "There's not a cloud in the sky." She peered upwards to see huge, dark clouds rolling toward the park from all directions. "Well, there wasn't," she corrected herself.

"The weather report didn't say anything about rain," said Naoko.

"Then of course it's going to rain," said Sunamori. "The weather report's never right."

Li strode through the crowd to stand next to Tomoyo. "Tomoyo, we need to talk," he whispered.

She nearly jumped at the sound of her own name. "How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"I'm not stupid," he replied. "I'm not going to ask why you used CHANGE, or why you picked Yamazaki to switch bodies with, but we have to get you back to normal in a hurry."

"What can we do?" she asked. A drop of water landed on her nose.

"We have to get away from everyone first," he advised. "I told Sakura what's going on, and Kero's thinking of a way to change you back in the meantime."

Tomoyo started to ask what he meant by that when it hit her. JOKER could only use the power of CHANGE once, and the only way to reverse the effect would be to use the same power again... a feat which JOKER was incapable of. "What are we going to do?" she asked worriedly.

"Get Yamazaki and make some excuse to get away from everybody else. Sakura and I will be waiting out of sight in the trees." He pointed toward the treeline. "We'll figure something out."

Sakura patted Tomoyo on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. It'll be okay."

Li motioned to Sakura, and the pair quietly excused themselves from the crowd and made their way into the forest to wait for Tomoyo.

Tomoyo took a deep breath and tapped Yamazaki on the shoulder. "May I talk to you in private?" she whispered.

"Are you finally going to tell me what's going on?" he groused.

She nodded. "We have to get away from everyone else first."

Yamazaki sighed. "All right. Get Chiharu to siphon out the fuel and get us back to normal."

"Siphon out the fuel?"

He pointed to where Chiharu was already positioning the wooden box with the fuel bottle and tubes next to the plane, shielding it from the increasingly frequent raindrops with her body. "The fuel's flammable, so it can't sit in the plane."

Tomoyo stepped forward and cleared her throat, once again nearly jumping at the unusually deep sound. "Say, Chiharu," she began, trying to remember Yamazaki's speech pattern. "Think you can handle the cleanup for me?"

Chiharu looked up. "Why? What are you going to do?"

The idea came to her much more quickly than she'd expected. "I need to talk to Tomoyo about flying the model plane."

Chiharu's face darkened. "What's so special about HER all of a sudden?"

"Wait, don't get mad at me!" Yamazaki protested.

Chiharu's attention turned to Yamazaki. "What does he see in you, anyway?"

"Nothing!" Tomoyo protested a bit too quickly. "It's really not like that!"

Sunamori faked a sad sigh. "And I was going to ask Tomoyo out when we got to middle school...."

Tomoyo blushed. "I...." There was no pause between the raindrops now, and the water was beginning to drip off the edge of Yamazaki's hat and soak her shoulders. But she barely noticed the wetness as she tried to figure out whether Sunamori was telling the truth or not.

"Hey, I think Takashi's embarrassed," teased Hayashi. "He really DOES have something going on with Tomoyo!"

"You jerks!" shouted Yamazaki. "Don't even joke about that!"

Everyone took a careful step back as what appeared to be mild-mannered Tomoyo exploded in fury. "Geez, we're sorry, Tomoyo," said Hayashi. "We were just playing around."

"What's wrong, Tomoyo?" Naoko asked with genuine concern. "I've never seen you this upset."

"I bet she's just had a bad day since her dentist appointment yesterday," Tomoyo explained quickly. "Did you know that dentistry began in -"

"Now's not the time for your stories," Chiharu interrupted. She hunched her shoulders and pulled her shirt up to keep the rain from falling on the back of her neck. "I want to get inside before this rain gets any worse."

Hayashi jerked a thumb in the direction of the path. "My dad drove me and Jono here... can we offer any of you girls a ride?" He smiled slyly.

Naoko started to accept, but Rika quickly pushed her aside. "Thanks, but our parents are expecting us. They'll be worried if we ride home with strangers."

"Your mother knows us," Hayashi reminded her. "She was at our play last year and you introduced us."

"Trust me, you guys are strange enough to be strangers," Rika countered. She quickly walked away, pushing Naoko in front of her, before Hayashi could respond.

Sunamori shook his head. "Dude.... Burned."

Hayashi sighed. "Chiharu, how about you?"

"She's got a boyfriend," Sunamori reminded him.

"Yeah, leave her alone!" snapped Yamazaki.

Hayashi chuckled. "Looks like Takashi's got girls fighting over him now."

"I do not!" shouted Yamazaki. Then, remembering his situation, he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, I'm not fighting over him! There's just something we need to talk about, that's all!"

Chiharu sighed. "Fine. Go. I'll be waiting here when you get back."

"Thanks, Chiharu," said Tomoyo. "You're a peach."

Chiharu blushed. "Just go, Yamazaki. And don't take too long."

Tomoyo chuckled nervously. "Don't worry. We'll be right back." She beckoned to Yamazaki and led the way toward where Sakura and Li were waiting. "I'm really sorry about this," she apologized.

"Can you tell me now what's going on?" asked Yamazaki, once they were out of Chiharu's hearing and deep enough in the trees that the leaves blocked most of the rain. "Why am I in your body?"

"It's magic," said Li, as he stepped into view with Sakura. "Ancient, very powerful magic."

Yamazaki turned to face Li and crossed his arms in disbelief. "There's no such thing as magic."

"Then explain why you're in Tomoyo's body," challenged Li.

"Well...." Yamazaki scratched his chin. "I don't know how you did it. But I'm sure this is just a trick, with a simple explanation."

"It's not a trick," said Sakura. "You and Tomoyo have really swapped bodies, and we have to figure out a way to change you back before anyone else finds out!"

"Well, assuming you're telling the truth, which I doubt," said Yamazaki, "why not use whatever swapped us in the first place to swap us back?"

"It's not that simple," explained Li. "The entity that's controlling the magic can only use each power once. Now that it's used the power of CHANGE, it can't be undone so easily."

Kero popped his head out of Sakura's pack. "Our only hope at this point would be to figure out a way to use other powers to recreate the effect of CHANGE."

Yamazaki gaped. "Did that toy just... talk?"

"Hey! Who are you calling a toy?" demanded Kero. He leapt at Yamazaki and hovered right in front of his face. "I'm Kerberos, Guardian Beast of the Clow!"

Yamazaki's eyes rolled, and he fainted dead away.

Kero shook his head sadly. "I guess he just wasn't ready to see a real live Guardian Beast. Not to mention the shock of being in a girl's body."

"He'll wake up soon enough," said Li.

"And when he does, he'll know all about the magic of Clow," Kero pointed out. "In retrospect, maybe showing myself wasn't such a good idea. I don't think we'll be able to explain away a flying, talking stuffed animal."

"Like we could explain away CHANGE," replied Li. "The secret's blown, plain and simple. He knows magic is real, and there's nothing we can do about it."

"I'm sorry," Tomoyo apologized. "It's my fault."

"Don't worry about it," said Kero. "When you're dealing with this level of magic, things are bound to get out of hand sooner or later. We can worry about trying to contain the secret when we've dealt with the bigger problem at hand." He assumed a Thinker pose and sat down in midair to consider the options. "Ah, got it!" he announced at last. "Have you tried just wishing to be back in your own body?"

Tomoyo closed her eyes. "JOKER, please put Yamazaki and me back into our own bodies!"

"Did it work?" asked Sakura.

Tomoyo looked down to where her unconscious body still lay. "No. I'm still Yamazaki."

Kero's expression darkened. "Then we're in a pretty rotten spot. If JOKER couldn't grant your wish, it must not have the power to do it at all."

"Why don't we just wait until JOKER's used up all its power, and use the real CHANGE card to swap them back?" suggested Li.

"That could take weeks!" countered Sakura. "We can't leave them like this for that long!"

"It's not quite that simple," put in Kero.

"What do you mean?" Tomoyo asked nervously.

"Remember that if people switched by the CHANGE card remain in the wrong bodies for more than a day, they're stuck forever," Kero reminded them.

Tomoyo paled. "Then if we don't return to our own bodies by tomorrow...."

Kero nodded. "You'll be going home to the Yamazaki residence from now on."

Tomoyo's knees buckled, dumping her on the ground. She could feel something squeezing within her chest, until her heart felt like it was about to burst. "And Yamazaki too...?"

"He'll be eating your mother's delicious breakfasts for the rest of his life," Kero said regretfully.

"No!" shouted Sakura. "We can't let that happen! We have to think of something!"

"We'll do what we can," said Kero. "But JOKER plays by a whole different set of rules. There's no guarantee a solution even exists."

"It has to!" Sakura insisted. "And we'll find it! Right, Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo nodded noncommittally, certain that some of the water running down her cheeks wasn't from the rain. Despite Sakura's reassurance, she couldn't get rid of the awful feeling inside her. She'd known coming to the park was a bad idea, but she'd come anyway. And now, what she'd been afraid of had happened. One of her friends had been dragged into JOKER's tangled web because of her selfish wish.

Li bent down to look into Tomoyo's face. "You look hurt," he announced.

"Don't feel bad," Kero urged amicably. "The situation's not as horrible as you think. I'm sure we'll find a way to get you back to normal."

Tomoyo shook her head. "It's not that..." she began, but couldn't bring herself to finish. As it happened, there was more than emotions hurting her, but her other problem seemed so petty compared to the big one facing her....

"What's wrong?" asked Sakura. "I'm sure we can help you, whatever it is."

Tomoyo blushed. "I really have to go to the bathroom."

Kero nodded sagely. "Now, THAT," he agreed, "is a conundrum."

  
  



	7. Tomoyo's Evening With Sakura

52 Curses

Chapter 7: Tomoyo's Evening With Sakura

Li pushed the bathroom door roughly open and peeked inside. "I don't see anyone," he announced.

"Check in the stalls," advised Tomoyo. "Someone might be in one of them."

Li groaned as he bent down to peer under the stall doors. "I still don't see why I have to hold you by the hand like a baby. It's not that hard to figure out."

A fierce blush set Yamazaki's borrowed face burning. "I feel uncomfortable going into the boys' room. It's not proper."

"If you want, Sakura can take you to the girls' room," he offered. "But that's going to look really strange, and it's not going to change the way your body works. You're still going to have to get your hands on Yamazaki's -"

"Please don't say it!" she begged him. "It's difficult enough to have to use the public bathroom as a boy. I don't want to think about it."

"Well, there's nobody in there." Li stood up and wiped his hands on his shirt. "You'd better hurry up. It's only going to hurt more if you put it off any longer."

Tomoyo was still hesitant, but the sound of the rain drumming on the roof was making the pressure in her abdomen even more uncomfortable by the second. She took a deep breath and stepped through the door marked MEN, catching a glimpse of her own weary, flushed face in the long mirror above the row of sinks. She was halfway to the urinals before she realized that that was unusual. "Um, Li... what do you see when you look in the mirror?"

Li spun around to glare at her. "Is this an ugly joke?"

"No.... Look at my reflection in the mirror." She pointed to her image.

Li glanced toward the mirror. "It's just you," he said. Then he took a longer look. "It's your own body. It's not Yamazaki."

"It was like that in the lake as well," she told him. "The reflection looked like me."

"That's weird," said Li. "When I switched bodies with Kero, my reflection still looked like him." Shaking his head, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the toilets. "We'd better hurry this up before somebody sees your reflection. Do you have to... uh... sit down, or will you be okay standing up?"

"Standing up?" she asked. "Is that possible?"

Li sighed. "I never thought I'd be potty training someone my own age...."

*************************************************

By the time Tomoyo had finished her business and returned to the others with Li, Yamazaki was already awake. "So let me get this straight," he recapped. "These 'Clow Cards' each let you cast a certain magic spell, but you need a wand to activate them. Then there's this fifty-third card, JOKER, that can use each of those spells once. And it used the spell called CHANGE to put me in Tomoyo's body, which is why it can't use the same spell to put me back."

"That's right," agreed Sakura. "I'm really sorry about this."

"So, how DO I get changed back?" asked Yamazaki.

Sakura rubbed the back of her head. "We're working on that right now."

"Working on it?" he repeated adamantly. "What do you mean, 'working on it'?"

"She means we're trying to figure out a way to switch you two back," Kero said impatiently. "Trust me, we don't like having you in Tomoyo's body any more than you do. But the magic of the Clow is complicated stuff." He looked up to see the new arrivals. "Great, you two are back."

"Sorry we took so long," said Li. "She wasn't comfortable."

Tomoyo blushed. "It's hard when I'm so nervous."

"It's okay, Tomoyo," Sakura assured her. "I'd be nervous too, if I had to go into the boys' bathroom."

"It wasn't so much that," said Li, "as that we were worried someone might see her reflection in the mirror. So we had to hurry her out of there... which makes even me have trouble sometimes," he admitted.

"What was wrong with her reflection?" Kero asked suspiciously.

"My reflection looks like me, not like Yamazaki," replied Tomoyo.

"Yeah, I saw myself in Naoko's glasses," added Yamazaki. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that you mention it, I should have seen Tomoyo."

Kero scratched his chin. "Well, then there's something to work with. Your reflections depict your true nature, not your outward form. There's gotta be something we can do with that."

"A way to bring out what's in the mirror?" Li wondered aloud. "Is there a Clow Card that can do that?"

"The nearest I can think of is MIRROR itself," replied Kero. "And that just makes copies of people. Wouldn't do us much good to have another Tomoyo and Yamazaki running around, especially if the copies' minds are swapped too."

"Maybe if we look at the Clow Cards themselves," suggested Sakura, "we might think of something." She reached into her backpack and fished out the Clow Deck, shielding it from the rain with her body.

Kero peered over her shoulder as she flipped through the deck, naming each card as she turned it over. "SWEET - I think we used that one this morning.... WAVE - Not useful unless there's water around.... JUMP - I don't think so...."

Yamazaki leaned in close and stared at the cards. "So these are the magical cards? They don't look that special to me. I saw those on sale at the Twin Bells craft shop a few months ago."

Li sighed. "Yeah, I remember that day. I nearly died."

"Wasn't that the day Meilin bought the SHOT card?" asked Tomoyo.

"Don't remind me," Li requested glumly. "The point is, those cards were all fakes, except for the one my idiot cousin bought. These are the real deal."

"But they don't work right now, because of JOKER," Sakura reminded him.

"They're not giving me any ideas, either," said Kero, shaking his head at BIG.

Sakura sighed and grabbed a random card from the middle of the deck. "How about this one? CREATE."

Kero's eyes lit up. "CREATE... now that could work."

"But CREATE only makes things real that are written in the book," said Sakura. "And when the book is closed, the things that were created vanish again."

"It doesn't have to work that way when JOKER's controlling the magic," Kero pointed out. "The essence of CREATE is bringing thoughts to life in physical form. The book is just a way for the Clow Cards to focus those thoughts into their most concentrated form. JOKER should be more than powerful enough to work with the raw thoughts and cause a permanent effect."

Sakura's eyes spun in confusion. "What does that mean?"

Li snorted. "It means he has an idea."

"Do you really know how to get us back into our own bodies?" Tomoyo asked hopefully.

"It's a long shot," Kero admitted, "but it's better than nothing. Tomoyo, Yamazaki... follow my instructions exactly, and we'll see if this doesn't get you two back to normal." He glared at Yamazaki. "Well, as normal as you've ever been, anyway."

"This from a flying, talking puppet?" returned Yamazaki.

Kero cleared his throat meaningfully. "Putting that aside... the object of this exercise will be to visualize yourselves back in your own bodies, using the mirror as a visual aid. Once that conception is firmly in your minds, JOKER should be able to use the power of CREATE to make it real."

Li leaned against a tree and crossed his arms. "You seriously expect that to work?"

"It's going to work!" Sakura insisted firmly. "You always think everything's going to go wrong, but I have faith in Kero's judgment." She nodded to Tomoyo. "Go ahead, Tomoyo. I know Kero's plan will work."

"Wish I could say the same," Kero said glumly. "All right. First things first, the two of you have to stand opposite each other and make like you're looking in a mirror."

Tomoyo and Yamazaki turned and looked at each other as if seeing the view for the first time. It was unnerving to see herself standing in front of her, but Tomoyo set the feeling of oddness aside and did her best to emulate Yamazaki's pose. She dropped her hands to her sides and stood with her legs slightly apart, turning the upper half of her body at an angle. In that position, she could honestly believe that what she was seeing was a mirror image rather than her own body.

"This is really freaky," said Yamazaki, adjusting his stance slightly.

"Just imagine that you're looking at a mirror image," Kero repeated. "Have you got it?"

"Yes," they replied in unison.

Kero nodded his approval. "Then Tomoyo, wish for a double-sided mirror between the two of you. And don't either of you move!"

Kero's sudden admonishment to remain still made Tomoyo aware of an itch on her nose, but she dutifully ignored it and wished for the mirror that Kero had described. It rose slowly from the earth, a large pane of reflective glass surrounded by gold ornamentation - flowers, holly berries, and a winged cherub at the very top. Soon, it had completely blocked Yamazaki from sight, but she could still see the same image of herself in the mirror.

"What you're seeing is not an illusion," Kero chanted softly. "It is the true reflection of what your body looks like. Do you believe this?"

"I do," Tomoyo and Yamazaki replied. Tomoyo wasn't sure whether Yamazaki really believed it, but despite Kero's mental exercise, she just couldn't deny what she knew to be true. The image in the mirror was a fake. She truly wanted to believe - it seemed to be the key to Kero's entire plan - but it was impossible. If only this really WAS her own body....

She gasped as she felt her stomach lurch forward, so rapidly that she felt like she had to throw up. There was a thunderous sound of breaking glass as something hit her between the eyes, nearly splitting her head in two, and her vision dissolved into stars. Her legs buckled under her, and she sat down heavily, her knees tangling in her skirt as she went down.

A pair of arms circled her shoulders as she tried to figure out what had happened. "Tomoyo! Is that you?" asked Sakura's voice. "Please be okay!"

"I'm okay," she replied. It was more of a reflex than the truth - she had no idea how she was actually feeling. "What happened to me? There was a bright light...."

"You went through the mirror!" Sakura related excitedly. "You and Yamazaki both went right through the mirror and out the other side. It was scary! I thought you were going to get hurt when you hit it, and there's broken glass everywhere!"

"I certainly didn't expect that to happen," said Kero. "I thought their minds would go back into their own bodies, but it looks like the bodies switched places instead." He paused, and Tomoyo could only guess at what sort of gesture he was making. "I guess it worked just as well."

"I can't see anything," Yamazaki complained from the far side of the mirror.

There was a rap of knuckles on wood. "The back of the mirror is still solid," said Li. "They couldn't possibly have gone through it."

Tomoyo's vision was starting to clear, but everyone standing over her was still a mere blur of color. She reached up and felt the spot where her face had hit the mirror, but there was no blood, nor a lump. She was sitting on something hard that was digging into her uncomfortably, and she reached under herself to pull out a triangular shard of glass. She couldn't tell if she was bleeding, because the seat of her dress was already wet from the rain and mud. However, she couldn't see any red in the mud-covered glass, which was a good sign.

"Is anything wrong, Tomoyo?" asked Sakura.

"I don't think so," she replied. "I'm back in my own body."

"That's good," said Sakura.

"How is Yamazaki doing?" asked Tomoyo, rubbing her eyes. When she opened them again, she could see perfectly. The first thing she saw, however, was a rather annoyed expression on Li's face.

"He left," Li announced. "Probably went back to Chiharu."

Sakura gasped. "Oh no! He's going to tell her about the Clow Cards!"

Li shrugged. "So?"

"What do you mean, 'so?'" asked Sakura. "We have to stop him!"

Kero nodded solemnly. "If word about the Clow Cards gets out, Sakura will be at the center of a lot of attention. And most of that attention isn't going to be good."

"Oh well," said Li with another disinterested shrug. "These things happen."

"How can you be so thoughtless?" screamed Sakura, grabbing Tomoyo's arm. "Come on, Tomoyo! We've got to hurry!"

Tomoyo stood up, feeling a bit wobbly, and let her feet run on autopilot while Sakura led the way through the trees to the lake. The next comprehensible thing she heard was Yamazaki's "Chiharu, guess what? You're never going to believe what happened!"

Chiharu stood by the water's edge, soaked from head to toe, glaring at Yamazaki through the sheets of rain. "I've been standing here for nearly twenty minutes. Where have you been?"

"Yamazaki, no!" shouted Sakura, but it was barely audible over the rain.

"I was inside Tomoyo's body!" Yamazaki blurted out. "See, Sakura's got these magical cards, but one of them went crazy and put me in Tomoyo's body! Then she had to go to the bathroom, only she was me, so she had to use the men's room, right? But then there was this mirror, and we went through it, and you can still see the lump right here!"

"Right, right," sighed Chiharu. "If you don't want to tell me what happened, just say so."

"But it's true!" he protested.

"You and your stories...." Chiharu picked up the fueling box in one hand and grabbed Yamazaki's ear with the other, barely giving him time to scoop up his plane as she dragged him away. "I don't care what's going on between you and Tomoyo, but I promise I'm going to make your life miserable unless you give it up right now!"

"And THAT," Li said triumphantly from just to Sakura's right, "is why I wasn't worried about Yamazaki spilling the beans. Nobody's going to believe him anyway."

"I see," said Kero from his shoulder. "You know Yamazaki better than his childhood friends do."

"Girls just worry too much," Li said flatly.

Sakura's face puffed up like a blowfish. "Stop making fun of me!"

Li sighed. "No need to get mad at me. You'll burst a blood vessel that way."

That just seemed to make Sakura even angrier. "Meanie!"

"I'm going home," Li announced. "This rain is getting on my nerves."

Tomoyo lightly placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder as Li walked away. "Don't let him upset you, Sakura. We've all had a difficult day."

"You sure are taking this well," observed Kero. "Just about everything that's happened today happened to you. Are you okay?"

Tomoyo nodded nervously. "The situation has been resolved, so everything's back to normal."

"But JOKER's still got plenty of power left," Kero pointed out.

Tomoyo shuddered involuntarily. "Please don't remind me."

"Sorry."

Sakura tugged on Tomoyo's sleeve. "Do you want to come back to my house? It's a lot closer than your house, and you can change into some clean clothes without having to go home. If your mom saw you like this, she might be upset."

Tomoyo looked down at her dress, only now realizing how dirty it was with rainwater, mud, and even a tiny bloodstain near her torn ankle. "Yes, let's do that," she decided.

*************************************************

It took Sakura a few minutes to find the keyhole on her front door, as it was still hidden within the light-consuming shadow that JOKER had placed there earlier that morning. Tomoyo hesitated to step on the porch that had nearly swallowed her alive, but it was a passing fear, quickly overshadowed by her need to be close to Sakura. She hurried into the house and closed the door behind herself, as if hoping to shut out the evil power of JOKER.

"We should at least call your mother and let her know you're over here," suggested Sakura.

"That's a good idea," agreed Tomoyo. "Would you mind making the call, while I go upstairs and change?"

"I have to change, too," Sakura pointed out, flinging water from her sopping sleeves. "Your mom probably wants to hear from you anyway."

"I'm too nervous to call home," said Tomoyo. "I wouldn't be able to speak."

"Well, SOMEBODY call," Kero said impatiently. "I'M not going to do it."

"I'll go upstairs and pick out some clothes I can let you borrow," Sakura asserted firmly. "You call your mother and ask her if it's okay for you to stay the night."

Tomoyo's heart leapt into her throat. She was going to spend the night with Sakura! It wasn't the first time, but they so rarely got to spend nights together that it was always exciting. And it would save her from having to be alone another night with JOKER's power looming over her, ready to cause chaos at any moment... it seemed too good to be true. "Are you sure that will be all right with your father?"

"Of course!" Sakura replied happily. "As long as your mom says it's okay."

Her mother did indeed say it was okay, largely because Dr. Kinomoto returned while she was still on the phone and assured her mother that he wouldn't let a hair on her daughter's head be harmed. Sakura practically flew down the stairs to greet him as soon as he was off the phone, wearing a clean set of clothes and a smile that showed no hint of the day's tragic excitement. In a whirl of hugs and greetings, Tomoyo was whisked up the stairs to Sakura's room, and before she knew it, Sakura was offering her a choice of dresses from her wardrobe. Tomoyo couldn't help blushing at the ironic turn of events as, for the first time, she was wearing Sakura's clothes instead of the other way around.

After that, they went down to the kitchen to help Dr. Kinomoto make dinner for five people (which required enough for ten when Yukito was one of those people), promising to bring some dessert up for Kero later in the evening. Touya and Yukito came home just in time to change out of their uniforms while Tomoyo and Sakura's father finished cooking and Sakura finished swooning over Yukito's entrance. And seemingly moments later, the entire group was sitting down to dinner.

"This afternoon has gone by so quickly," Tomoyo noted as she waited for everyone else to finish serving themselves.

"Time always seems to go by too quickly when you're being productive," agreed Dr. Kinomoto. "I've always known Sakura was a wonderful help in the kitchen, but you're quite a hand yourself. Thank you."

Tomoyo smiled at the compliment, while Yukito swallowed a mouthful and turned to her. "This is very good, Tomoyo. And Sakura, you helped too?"

Sakura blushed and nodded.

Touya stuffed a chunk of potato into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Seems kinda dry," he assessed without swallowing. "Sakura made these, right?" Seconds later, he jumped as Sakura kicked him under the table.

"So, Yukito, how was work?" asked Sakura.

"It went well," replied Yukito, "except that I ended up eating most of my wages."

"I'm surprised there was anything left for the customers," said Touya. "Part-time jobs aren't going to be enough if you keep eating like that, you know."

"Eating a lot is a sign of good health," Sakura reminded her older brother.

"And eating enough to feed a family of seven for lunch, and still having room for that much at dinner, is a sign that something's wrong," countered Touya.

"Now, now," Dr. Kinomoto broke in, "he's our guest." He smiled at Yukito. "So, Yukito, how is school going?"

"Aside from it being summer break, you mean?" Yukito quipped. "I'm doing surprisingly well. I sometimes have trouble staying awake during classes, but I haven't fallen behind yet."

"It's not just class," said Touya. "You nearly nodded off twice on the job today."

"I get tired when I don't eat enough," admitted Yukito. "Maybe I could do with a longer lunch break."

"'Don't eat enough?'" Touya repeated quietly, his voice tinged with worry. "How much is 'enough,' man?"

"Eat as much as you want," urged Sakura. "We made plenty."

"Tomoyo, how have you been?" asked Sakura's father.

Tomoyo nearly choked in surprise. She'd been enjoying the feel of a nice, normal family conversation so much that she'd almost forgotten she was in the room. And what a question to open with! She didn't know where to begin. 'Oh, my life has been hectic since yesterday afternoon, which I lived through twice, by the way. Did you know that having every wish granted is a living nightmare? I've almost died at least four times in the last two days, I had to use the boys' bathroom just a few hours ago, and now I'm staying here tonight because I'm scared to death of being alone.'

"I've been very busy lately," she said aloud. "Sakura's been giving me a lot of support, which has helped me a great deal."

"That's my little Sakura," Dr. Kinomoto agreed. "She's never happier than when she's helping her friends."

"I just like spending time with Tomoyo is all," said Sakura, turning her face to her plate.

"I barely see you two apart anymore," said Touya. "Maybe we should staple you together."

Tomoyo sighed in a show of delusional happiness. "Oh, it would be so wonderf-" She quickly shut up and bit her tongue, hoping JOKER hadn't decided to grant her half-stated wish. She wasn't sure whether there were any Clow Cards that could attach two people to each other, but she didn't want to take that risk.

Yukito chuckled, misinterpreting Tomoyo's sudden silence. "I think it's cute the way you two get along. Childhood friends are special."

Touya nodded. "Yeah, it's good to see that Sakura has someone to take care of her in hard times."

Sakura stared at Touya, trying to figure out what he meant by that, but Dr. Kinomoto spoke up. "Did anyone notice that the front of the house was unusually dark today?"

"Yes, there was a large round shadow over the front door when Touya and I went to work," said Yukito. "I thought it was a sunspot, or perhaps a passing satellite, but it was still there when we got back."

Touya glanced at Sakura, who did her best to appear as clueless as everyone else. "I'm sure it'll go away on its own," he declared.

"I sure hope so," replied Dr. Kinomoto. "The porch lights don't appear to be working, and I can't see to change the bulbs while it's that dark."

"I'll take care of it tomorrow," offered Touya. "Hopefully, that shadow will be gone by then." He said this last sentence with another meaningful glance in Sakura's direction.

Sakura pushed her nearly empty plate away from herself. "I think I've had enough to eat," she announced. "May I be excused?"

"Is something wrong, Sakura?" asked Tomoyo.

"No, nothing," she replied. "I just feel a bit tired. I should go upstairs and lie down for a while."

"Maybe you ate too much," Yukito said with a smile. "That can make you tired."

Touya sighed. "Too much, not enough... is there any amount of eating that DOESN'T make you tired?"

Yukito rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. "It is rather strange that I've been so tired lately. But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Sakura stood up and picked up her plate. "Good night, everyone. I'm sorry I can't stay longer."

"Sakura, wait!" called Tomoyo as Sakura carried her plate into the kitchen. "I'll come with you!"

"Are you finished?" asked Dr. Kinomoto. "You've hardly touched your food."

"I'm not very hungry," she replied, not entirely lying. "If it's all right, may I just take a few slices of pie upstairs for myself and Sakura to eat later?"

"Of course," said Dr. Kinomoto. "Have a good night."

Kero seemed surprised to see the girls when they got up to Sakura's room. "Pie!" he shouted, diving headfirst onto one of the plates before voicing his suspicion. "So, what are you two doing up here while Snow Rabbit's downstairs? I've never seen Sakura leave him unless she was dragged away."

"Touya was making me feel uncomfortable," said Sakura.

"Doesn't he always?" Kero asked through a mouthful of pie.

"He kept looking at Sakura whenever the shadow on the front of the house was mentioned," explained Tomoyo.

Kero swallowed. "I'm pretty sure he's suspected something about Sakura for a while now. But if he'd figured out that Sakura is a magician, he'd probably have confronted her about it by now."

"Then you're saying there's no need for Sakura to worry?" asked Tomoyo.

"There's nothing we can do about Touya, no matter what he's thinking," confirmed Kero. "So just let him be and deal with more important issues."

"Do you have any more ideas about JOKER?" asked Sakura, clearly reluctant to forget about her brother, but willing for Tomoyo's sake.

Kero's expression darkened as he scratched his head with the fork. "I've been thinking long and hard about this one. But everything we've tried has just gotten us in more trouble. No matter what Tomoyo's doing, it's just human nature to wish for things, and those wishes are going to fuel JOKER's mischief. And we've already seen what JOKER will do if we try to deal with it directly."

"Ohhhh..." whined Sakura. "There has to be something we can do!"

Kero gestured toward the Clow Book on Sakura's desk. The cover flipped open, and the cards floated lazily into the air to form a circle around Sakura. "All these cards... each one with more power than any human is capable of using unaided. Two of them together could defeat almost any other type of magic in human history, and Clow calculated that it would take only eighteen of them to rival the power that created the Universe itself." He shrugged smugly. "Then again, Clow always did have a big head." He shook his own head, then paused to take another bite of pie while the cards collected into a deck again. "JOKER has the power of all fifty-two of them put together. No living being could possibly channel that much power. That's why JOKER is autonomous; only JOKER itself is capable of using its power. That's what we're up against here. It's a force beyond comprehension, and even farther beyond anything we could wield against it."

"What are you saying?" asked Sakura.

Kero sighed. "I'm saying it's quite possible that there's nothing we can do to stop it. Maybe all we can do is stick by Tomoyo's side and clean up JOKER's messes until it runs out of power."

"But it's dangerous!" Sakura protested. "And we can't possibly stay with Tomoyo all the time!"

"When a hurricane comes, you just have to brace yourself for the storm and clean up the damage afterwards," Kero analogized. "JOKER is a force of nature, Sakura. Stand in its way, and you'll just get blown down."

"This isn't a hurricane we're talking about! Tomoyo is our friend!" 

Feeling a bit uncomfortable being the topic of the conversation, Tomoyo turned her attention away from the pair and found herself at the window, looking up into the sky. There wasn't much to see; even though the rain had stopped, the dark clouds still filled the view, hiding the stars. She sighed sadly, wishing the night sky were even worth looking at. She'd love to share a beautiful starlit sky with Sakura....

The sky instantly filled with tiny dots of light, like hundreds of unmoving, unblinking fireflies. Unlike distant stars, these lights seemed to populate the entire atmosphere from the clouds all the way down to the ground. The suddenness of their appearance drew a startled gasp from Tomoyo, but she quickly regained her composure and let herself be awed by the magnificence of the spectacle.

Sakura was at her side in a second. "What is it, Tomoyo?" She froze as the lights outside drew her eyes. "Oh, it's so beautiful!"

"It's just GLOW," said Kero. "You've seen it before."

"It's still pretty," cooed Sakura. "I could look at this all night."

Tomoyo opened the window and stretched her arm out, letting the cool night air play against her skin. Even the small contact with fresh air felt liberating, reminding her of how tense she was and how much she needed a chance to relax. It would feel so nice to immerse herself fully in the night... which gave her a strange but wonderful idea. She closed her eyes. "I wish that Sakura and I could fly into the starry sky together."

"Whoa, whoa!" warned Kero. "That can't be safe!"

Tomoyo felt her entire body become lighter, and she quickly grabbed the windowsill for fear she would float right off the floor. However, she remained right where she was. Experimentally, she imagined herself rising a few inches, and her body obliged so naturally that she almost forgot that she'd never been able to fly before. She let go of the wall and turned a few experimental flips in the middle of the room. "It's easy! Try it, Sakura!"

Sakura gasped as she floated into the center of her room to join Tomoyo, but quickly overcame her fear as she realized how excellent her control was. "This is amazing, Tomoyo!" she laughed, spinning through the air and trying some acrobatic moves that rivaled anything she'd ever done on a gym mat.

Tomoyo motioned toward the window. "Come on, let's go outside." She flew to the window and dropped her hands to her sides so that she would fit through the opening.

"Tomoyo, wait!" called Sakura, darting out after her. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Tomoyo sat back in the air and nodded. "I feel like this is the way JOKER wants to be used. It wants to make me happy, and not just waste its power cleaning up its own messes."

"But aren't you afraid something bad might happen?" asked Sakura.

"Not at all," replied Tomoyo. "JOKER won't hurt me as long as I'm not trying to fight it."

"That's what we thought before," said Kero from the window. "But any wish could be turned against you."

"I think we should just go back inside, Tomoyo," advised Sakura. "Flying could be dangerous."

Tomoyo floated close to Sakura. "Sakura, this is the first time in days that I've truly felt happy. I really want to spend some time away from other people, away from everything. I want to forget about JOKER and the Clow Cards and just enjoy something. I want to be with you and not have to be afraid."

Sakura sighed. "We'd be even less afraid in my room...."

Tomoyo took Sakura's hand and threaded her fingers through Sakura's. "Please don't take this chance away from me." She watched Sakura's eyes widen in surprise, but it couldn't possibly compare to Tomoyo's own astonishment. She'd acted without thinking, only to discover that, indeed, the thing she feared was not a wish gone wrong but the loss of this wonderful opportunity to be close to Sakura.

There was an extremely uncomfortable pause while Sakura looked herself over from head to toe. She bobbed up and down in the air as she thought deeply about something for what seemed like an hour to Tomoyo. Finally, she smiled nervously. "It feels safe enough," she decided. "I suppose we can fly around a bit. We should at least get up higher before somebody sees us."

Tomoyo willingly accepted that answer and led the way into the sky, passing some of the lowest glowing spots on the way. This close, they looked even more like fireflies than before, and Tomoyo reached out and grabbed one without even considering the possibility that it might burn her. Fortunately, she couldn't feel it at all, and when she pulled her hand back, the light remained right where it was.

"Wow," breathed Sakura, her trepidation draining away as the ground below grew more and more distant. But her eyes were focused on the sky around her. "It's so beautiful."

The last of Tomoyo's fear vanished as Sakura began to enjoy the flight. It was going to be a magical evening after all. "This is the kind of wish I truly wanted all along," said Tomoyo.

"It feels so strange to fly without the Clow Wand," said Sakura. "I feel so free, like I could do anything I want."

"We can," Tomoyo told her. "Your wishes are my wishes."

Sakura recoiled. "You mean... you want to use JOKER again?"

Tomoyo nodded. "Tonight, I'm in control. JOKER will do only what I want; I can feel it."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Sakura.

"So far, JOKER has been acting against me because I didn't accept it," replied Tomoyo. "If I accept JOKER's presence, and use it to make myself happy, then it will behave. It's doing what it wants to do." She rolled over onto her back, kneaded her fingers behind her head, and let herself float, sighing happily.

Sakura dubiously mimicked the position and stared up into the dark clouds just overhead. "What do you plan to wish for?" she asked.

"Being with you is all I want right now," said Tomoyo, "and I already have that. I just want to enjoy it while it lasts."

Sakura blushed. "Um...."

"Shall we fly above the clouds?" asked Tomoyo. "We can see the real stars."

"Okay," Sakura agreed, letting the matter drop. If Tomoyo was happy, then Sakura owed it to her not to destroy that fragile mood. And who knew? Perhaps she was right. Maybe she and JOKER could learn to get along.

The girls shot upward through the dense cloud together, shivering as the cold droplets of water touched their skin, and broke through into the clear sky above. The stars seemed so distant compared to the lights of GLOW beneath them, leaving them in an empty expanse of sky; but there was something so natural, so uninhibited, about the way the lights above twinkled that drew fresh cries of wonder from them.

"I've never taken the time to look at the stars from this high up before," said Sakura. "They're incredible!"

Tomoyo slipped her hand into Sakura's again. "I feel so warm inside just looking at them."

"Once I get my power back, we should fly together again," said Sakura. "We'll have to use the Clow Wand, but it will still be fun."

"But nothing will be as wonderful as being able to fly freely like this," said Tomoyo. Then, with a chuckle, she let go of Sakura's hand and darted out of arm's reach. "Sakura, try to catch me!"

"What?" asked Sakura. But Tomoyo was already swooping away, and Sakura had to dive after her. They circled around each other and spun and danced in the air, leading each other on a merry chase above the clouds. Time flew by while standing still - they could have spent days playing that way and not missed the time at all.

Finally, Sakura sat down, breathing heavily. "I'm dizzy," she announced. "We've been flying in circles too long."

Tomoyo sat down beside her, the wind blowing her long hair forward over her shoulders. "That was exciting. But maybe we should just rest for a while."

Sakura fell onto her back and lay in a dead float, staring up into the stars. "Say, Tomoyo...."

"Yes?"

She stretched her arm to the dome of the sky above. "Do you ever wonder what it's like out there?"

Tomoyo looked up. "In outer space?"

Sakura nodded. "People used to go into space, and walk on the moon. But what's really out there, beyond the stars we can see?"

"I don't know," Tomoyo admitted. "It might be nice to go there someday and see, but I don't want to go right now. There's too much I still want to do here on Earth."

"Yeah, not right now," Sakura agreed. "But someday." She pointed off to the side, and Tomoyo noticed a particularly bright star in that part of the sky. "That one. That's my star. Someday, I'll go there and see what it's like."

"How will you remember which star is yours?" asked Tomoyo.

"I just know," said Sakura, turning back to Tomoyo. "It feels cozy."

Tomoyo found herself looking deep into Sakura's eyes. Sakura's expression was the same dreamy look that she always took on when gazing upon Yukito or Miss Mizuki. Tomoyo sighed, regretting that the dreaminess wasn't on her behalf, but still reveling in her friend's happiness. It seemed like such a waste that she didn't have her camera with her to record the moment.

"Let's go get it," said Sakura.

Tomoyo jumped in surprise. "Get it?"

"Your camera," explained Sakura. "You said you wished you had it."

Tomoyo blushed. "I didn't realize I was talking out loud...."

Sakura smiled. "Well, come on. Let's go." She held out her hand, and Tomoyo took it gingerly. Sakura led the way as the pair set off together for the Daidouji mansion.

Suddenly, Sakura's entire body shuddered. "Is something wrong?" asked Tomoyo.

"I feel strange," said Sakura, moments before she stopped in place, hovering for a split second, then dropped like a stone, arrested only by her firm grip on Tomoyo's hand. Tomoyo felt like her arm was being torn from its socket, but she held on tight.

"What happened?" asked Tomoyo.

"I don't know!" cried Sakura. "I suddenly couldn't fly anymore!"

"Oh, no," gasped Tomoyo. "JOKER's power must be wearing off!"

"But we're still too high! We'll die if we fall!" Sakura frantically grabbed Tomoyo's arm with both hands. "Please hold on!"

"I won't let you go!" Tomoyo assured her friend, as she felt her body becoming heavier again. "I'm going to fall!"

"Quick, fly back to the ground!"

"There's no time!" The magical force holding her up let go, and she and Sakura fell together, screaming all the way.

"Tomoyo, do something!" shouted Sakura.

Tomoyo swallowed and cringed against the rising wind. "JOKER, please save us!"

The air around Tomoyo began to swirl, creating what felt like a soft cushion under her. At first, it stayed beneath her as she continued to descend, picking up speed, but then it stopped, breaking her fall in a jarring instant. Sakura's weight suddenly wrenched on her arm again, and this time, her fingers weren't strong enough to handle the force. Sakura's hand slipped from Tomoyo's grip, and she continued her plummet at terminal velocity.

Tomoyo rolled over in the funnel, reaching toward Sakura as if expecting her arm to extend itself and save her friend. "Sakura!" she screamed helplessly as she watched Sakura plunge through the clouds and out of sight, her final scream swallowed by the mist as she vanished.

  



	8. Tomoyo's Brave Stand

52 Curses

Chapter 8: Tomoyo's Brave Stand

Tomoyo leaned over the side of the whirling tornado and stared down into the dark clouds in disbelief. It simply wasn't possible. She knew she'd commanded JOKER to save both Sakura and herself, and even if JOKER was tapping into her subconscious wishes rather than her spoken command, surely she hadn't wished for Sakura to die!

But whatever the reason, she had to act quickly. She sat back in the funnel and braced herself against the sides. "Take me to the ground, quickly!" she shouted. "I have to catch Sakura before she hits the ground!" The tornado obligingly began to descend, but at a feather's pace. At that rate, Sakura would be dead before Tomoyo had even reached the cloud layer. Losing patience, she kicked at the air, nearly losing a sock as her foot penetrated the soft surface of her conveyance. "I said quickly! We don't have much time!" Her descent accelerated, but not by nearly enough. She still felt as if she was sitting still in the air.

There was only one thing left to do. Tomoyo rolled over and pulled herself toward the side of the tornado, willing to take a fatal plunge if it would get her to Sakura faster than the reluctant magic. The sides of the funnel rose sharply, trapping her in its center, but the entire tornado tipped onto its side as her weight shifted, and she was falling again. The air continued to spin around her, but now it was merely there, offering no resistance to her drop at terminal velocity.

In seconds, she passed through the clouds, shielded from the dense moisture by the swirling wind. The ground was still forever away, but she was falling quickly toward it, and she suddenly wondered whether she was going to die when she hit it, having forsaken the protection of JOKER's magic. She screamed in terror, but could barely hear the sound.

Then, the air under her became solid, and she was slowing down. She looked down, and saw herself skimming just above the street's surface, almost close enough to touch if she was willing to brave sticking her hand into the spinning air that had saved her life. She heaved a relieved sigh, and had already begun to wonder how long it would take the tornado to release her when the original cause of her near-death experience resurfaced in her mind.

"Sakura!" she cried, leaping unsteadily to her feet. "Take me to Sakura, quickly!" Instead, the tornado vanished, dumping her to the ground. She barely managed to keep her balance as her feet touched down, lurching forward. She shook her head and peered down the street, searching for Sakura's body yet hoping that she wouldn't find it, that there was still time, even though she knew she was far too late.

"Ouch..." Sakura moaned from behind her. Tomoyo whirled around to see her friend sitting up in the street, wearing nothing but her underwear and socks, rubbing her posterior with both hands.

"Sakura!" Tomoyo exclaimed joyously, diving onto Sakura with the tightest hug she'd ever given and knocking the older girl onto her back. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

"No thanks to JOKER," Kero said morosely as he hovered overhead, still holding Sakura's dress by the back of the collar. "If I hadn't been following you two, she'd have a lot more than an achy butt to worry about."

Sakura felt her face heating up. "Um, Tomoyo, could you let go of me for just a second? I need to get dressed."

Tomoyo held the hug a few seconds longer before getting up and standing aside to give Sakura room to don her shed clothing. Kero's expression grew smug as his master regained her dignity. "Wasn't as safe as you thought, was it?" he asked.

"I can't understand why we suddenly couldn't fly anymore," argued Tomoyo, surprised to find herself so calm after such a harrowing experience. "I know I didn't want to fall, and there's no reason JOKER would have wanted to harm us...."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," said Kero. "You weren't paying attention to where you were flying, were you?"

"Not really," admitted Sakura. "We were just on our way to Tomoyo's house to get her camera, when all of a sudden...."

"... you flew right to this spot, and the magic went away," Kero finished for her. "Take a look at where you are," he instructed, pointing to the looming torii that framed the walkway at whose end the girls had landed.

Sakura gasped. "We're right outside the Tsukimine Shrine!"

Kero nodded. "Seems like JOKER felt threatened when you two tried to fly over the shrine grounds. Even if you weren't planning to drop in for a visit, it didn't want to take the chance."

"That's not fair!" Sakura protested. "We didn't mean to come here! It was just a coincidence!"

Kero shrugged. "JOKER's magic, JOKER's rules. I told you before, it's too powerful and too unpredictable to control. You've gotta be prepared for anything."

Tomoyo didn't even realize she was crying until she felt a tear run down her cheek. She sniffed involuntarily, drawing the others' attention to her. Sakura stepped carefully toward Tomoyo, her usual sisterly concern evident on her face and in her voice. "What's wrong, Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo shivered. "JOKER didn't even try to save you," she explained. "It wanted you to die. I don't know why, but it only saved me."

"I'm all right," Sakura assured her, stretching out a hand to pat Tomoyo's shoulder, but Tomoyo brushed her arm away.

"That's not the point," she said firmly. "JOKER didn't just try to stop us from getting to the shrine; it disobeyed my wish and tried to kill you. It's changed."

"What are you saying?" asked Sakura.

Tomoyo looked up at the torii with defiance in her eyes. "We can't just let JOKER have its way anymore. We have to fight it."

Kero interposed himself between Tomoyo and the shrine entrance, holding his arms wide. "Whoa, kid! Listen to yourself! You remember what happened the last time you tried to get in here, don't you?"

Tomoyo nodded. Her ankle still twinged in pain as she recalled her brush with the deadly power of MIST. "I know it's dangerous. JOKER will try to kill us again if we enter here. But it's already tried to kill us on the outside as well. We're no longer safe anywhere. I think we should face it where we know it will be waiting, rather than letting it surprise us the way it has been."

"You've got no way to protect yourself!" Kero reminded her. "Sakura and I are powerless, and JOKER's not going to defend you against itself!"

"I think she's right, Kero," announced Sakura. "We can't live the rest of our lives in fear. We have to oppose JOKER the only way we can." She took Tomoyo's hand and turned toward the shrine. "I'm ready to go."

Tomoyo shook her head. "Sakura, you can't. I'm the one it wants. You'll only be putting yourself in danger."

"If you're going into danger, then I'm going with you," Sakura insisted. "We'll be stronger together."

"But -"

"You always stood by me when I fought the Clow Cards," Sakura interrupted. "Now, it's your fight, so I'm going to stand by you."

The smile on Sakura's face melted the last of Tomoyo's resolve. "All right," she agreed. "We'll go to see Miss Mizuki together."

Kero sighed. "Sure. Why don't we all just march right in there and get ourselves killed? You've lived good, full, eleven year lives."

"You don't have to come with us," Sakura reminded him. "We'll be fine on our own."

Kero groaned and settled on Sakura's shoulder. "You wouldn't make it halfway there without me," he decided.

The girls steeled their nerves and climbed the stairs one by one, their breaths growing heavier with each step. Finally, they reached the top and passed through the arch, bracing themselves for JOKER's attack. Seconds passed, and then a full minute. Yet all remained quiet.

"I guess we'd better keep going," Kero ventured at last. "But keep your eyes peeled. It's probably going to try to catch us off guard."

Tomoyo stared nervously at the path in front of them. It seemed to go on forever, even though she knew it was only a short distance to the shrine. Her terror was multiplying every sensation, making her feel like she was being watched from every direction at once. The trees that lined the path rustled as she and Sakura stepped forward, making her jump. Just nerves, she told herself. It was just nerves.

Suddenly, Sakura shrieked and jerked backwards, pulling her hand out of Tomoyo's. As Tomoyo turned to see what was wrong, something grabbed her wrist and yanked her off her feet. She had barely enough time to look up and see that it was a long, gnarled tree branch before another pair of branches shot out from the same tree and wrapped firmly around her ankles. Thinking quickly, she pulled her left arm away from yet another branch before it could ensnare her and grabbed the branch that was holding her right wrist, hoping to pry herself free. But it held firm, and the questing tendril managed to catch her arm while she was occupied, pinning her helplessly in place. The four branches that secured her limbs then began to pull in different directions, threatening to tear her body apart. The sudden pain drew a scream from deep within her, and Sakura echoed it as she suffered the same fate as her friend.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," chanted Kero as he flitted from side to side above them, holding the sides of his head. "I was afraid something like this would happen!"

"Kero, do something!" pleaded Sakura. "It hurts!"

Hearing Sakura's desperate voice made Tomoyo's heart leap into her throat. It was her fault. She'd led Sakura into danger, and now Sakura was suffering for her mistake. Even her own pain was meaningless by comparison. She twisted her body, hoping to pull one of her arms free, but all that did was scratch her wrists and make her shoulders ache even more. Kicking with her legs proved equally futile, accomplishing nothing more than a dull throbbing pain in her hips. Her entire body hurt from the combination of her struggles and the imminent drawing-and-quartering, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Kero finally steeled his nerves and swooped in to grab one of the branches holding Sakura's wrists, pulling at it with all of his might. When that failed to produce any results, he put his teeth to the task, biting at the rough bark, but the tree was unaffected.

"It's no good," he declared at last. "WOOD's just too strong!"

"Isn't there anything you can do?" asked Sakura, fighting to counter the branches' pull with her own strength.

Kero sighed and shrugged helplessly. "Even if I had my powers, WOOD is Yue's specialty. It's not an attack card, so I've never had to think of a way to fight it." He shot upward, barely dodging a branch that tried to grab him.

"Well, think of one now!"

"It ain't easy to think at a time like this," Kero informed her as he retreated to a safe distance. "But it's just trees... they've probably got the usual weaknesses. Fire, and axes."

The mention of axes sparked a thought in Tomoyo's mind. If Li had been with them, he would have been able to slice through the branches with his sword. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to seek his help before confronting JOKER, but now she and Sakura would have to fight for themselves. Still, that sword would have been awfully handy....

She felt something heavy in her hand and reflexively clenched her fist around a thin shaft, but still nearly dropped it. The weight quickly faded, though, leaving her fingers slightly numb but otherwise able to hold the object without even noticing that it was there. When she looked up at her hand, she was only mildly surprised to see Li's jewel-hilted sword tightly clasped in it.

Kero's eyes bulged as he noticed the weapon in Tomoyo's hand. "Where did you get that sword?" he asked. "Don't tell me...."

Tomoyo nodded. "I think JOKER gave it to me."

"Well, don't just sit there and admire it!" cried Kero. "Use it!"

Grasping the sword firmly, Tomoyo returned to her struggles with renewed hope... only to find that a sword wasn't much use if she couldn't swing it. The branches held her arm fixed in place, preventing her from bringing the sword to bear against them. "I can't move!" she shouted, hoping that Kero could come up with a solution.

Sakura craned her neck to get a better look at Tomoyo's predicament. "Tomoyo, I think you can cut that branch!"

"Which one?" asked Tomoyo, searching for the branch Sakura was talking about.

"The one that's holding the sword!" replied Sakura. "Just move your hand and you can hit it!"

Feeling sheepish for overlooking the obvious solution, Tomoyo quickly twisted her wrist, snapping the sharp edge of the blade against the branch that secured her right arm. She only managed to create a small gouge in the thick bark, but a few more clumsy swings weakened the branch in several places, until a final stroke sliced cleanly through the limb and severed it. She quickly pulled her arm down, falling forward as the sudden lack of support caused her to lose her balance. Her weight nearly pulled her left arm out of the socket, but her shoulder held together, and she managed to right herself and paused for breath.

"Don't stop!" urged Kero. "Finish cutting yourself free and help Sakura!"

For Sakura's sake, Tomoyo cut her break short, quickly slicing through the branch that held her left arm in a single stroke. This time, she really did fall flat on her face, feeling the strain on her calves as the branches tried to hold them upright. Fortunately, they gave just enough that she didn't break any bones, but her legs were in an awkward position as she twisted her upper half, trying to get the leverage she needed to cut her legs free.

"Watch out!" shouted Kero. "The branches are coming for you!"

Tomoyo was already swinging the sword as she looked up, dealing a glancing blow to one of the encroaching branches. Another branch wrapped around her left elbow, but she quickly cut through it and hacked the end off the damaged one before setting to work on the branch holding her right leg. It took three hits to cut most of the way through, allowing her to pull the rest apart with a firm kick. She rolled over onto her back, feeling the rough bark scrape her ankle, and sat up so that she could sever the last branch with a single chop.

"Way to go!" cheered Kero.

Sakura started to echo Kero's congratulation, but it quickly became a pained scream as the branches increased their pull on her, as if taking out their frustration at Tomoyo's escape on her. Tomoyo leapt to her feet, sliced at a few more branches before they could get hold of her, and hastily cut Sakura's arms free, catching Sakura in her left arm as she fell.

"Thanks, Tomoyo," said Sakura, clutching at the younger girl for support. "I thought my arms were going to be ripped off!"

"Are your legs okay?" asked Tomoyo.

Sakura nodded. "It's not pulling my legs as hard. I think I'll be okay."

Tomoyo smiled. "I'm so glad!"

Kero sniffed at the air. "Hate to break in at such a sensitive moment, but I feel something big coming. My fur's standing on end."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a bolt of lightning shot from the sky, striking the tree that still had its branches wrapped around Sakura's legs. A shower of sparks flew from the point of impact, setting the surrounding foliage on fire. One of the sparks just missed the hem of Sakura's dress, making her jump, knocking Tomoyo to the ground and falling on top of her.

"It's hot!" shouted Sakura. "Am I on fire?"

"No, you're safe for now," Kero assured her. "But Tomoyo, you'd better cut her free quick, before those flames spread!"

Tomoyo crawled out from under Sakura and hefted the sword, cringing from the intense heat as the fire quickly worked its way along the branches toward Sakura. She tried to take a step forward, but the radiation was like a solid wall, pushing her back before she could get close enough. "It's too hot!" she cried, shielding her eyes as the fire flared up, forcing her even farther back.

"I'm burning up!" shouted Sakura, coughing as the smoke started to choke her.

"Tomoyo, quit staring and do something!" ordered Kero. "She's gonna die!"

Tomoyo bent down and crept forward, shutting out the heat as best she could. But the smoke was so thick by now that she couldn't even see Sakura's lower half anymore. If she swung blindly into that smoke, she would risk cutting Sakura's leg instead of the branch. "I can't get to her! We have to put out the fire first!"

"With what?" Kero shot back. "JOKER's magic? Even if it is still granting your wishes, it's already used both WATERY and RAIN! There aren't any more water type cards you can use!"

Tomoyo's heart sank as she realized that Kero was right. She'd wasted the useful wishes already, and now the powers that remained weren't enough to get the job done. She looked down at Sakura, who looked back up pleadingly, but Tomoyo could offer her no hope. She averted her eyes and tried to remember a happier time.

Suddenly, the answer popped into her head. There was one more water type card, one that she and Sakura had spent hours playing with on their last sleepover, when they'd had to wash the dishes together. One of the more amusing and pointless cards, but in this instance, it just might prove to be a lifesaver. "JOKER!" she shouted. "Cover the branches with bubbles!"

"Bubbles?" Kero echoed questioningly. Then, comprehension dawned in his eyes, and he nodded his understanding. "I get it. BUBBLES can put out the fire!"

"I hope so," Tomoyo said worriedly, as there was no visible change in the output of smoke from the fire. She couldn't even tell whether the bubbles were appearing or not. Perhaps JOKER had chosen to ignore her again....

"I can't wait any longer!" Tomoyo announced. She squared her shoulders and pressed forward again, forcing her way into the thick cover of smoke and flame. "Sakura, hang on! I'm coming!"

"Don't come any closer!" warned Sakura, her voice weaker than before. "Get away, or you'll die too! You have to get to Miss Mizuki... get rid of JOKER!"

Tomoyo started to protest, but her foot landed in a shallow puddle of boiling water, soaking her sock immediately and driving pins of pain into her sole. She quickly stepped back and pulled off her sock, wondering where the water had come from. The path had been completely dry when they'd arrived, which was a bit odd considering the recent rainstorm.... was it what was left over when the bubbles popped from the extreme heat? If that was the case, then the bubbles must have been working, but it obviously wasn't enough.

"Tomoyo!" gasped Sakura. "Water... ground...."

"I can barely hear you!" replied Tomoyo, bending down to listen to whatever Sakura had to say.

"WAVE..." was all she could make out before Sakura fell silent.

"What did she say?" asked Kero as he did his best to brave the thick smoke.

"She said WAVE," related Tomoyo.

"WAVE? But why?" asked Kero. "WAVE only works if there's water nearby."

"There is!" Tomoyo shouted triumphantly as the pieces fell together. "JOKER, make a wave with the water on the ground! Splash it all over the fire!"

From the depths of the smoke-filled area came the tiny sounds of water splashing, and the sharp hiss of the fire slowly dying as the combination of bubbles and splashing finally proved to be its match.

Not waiting for the fire to die out completely, Tomoyo dashed into the thinning cloud of smoke and fell to her knees, ignoring the heat of the water under her and groping for the branches with her hands. Her fingers closed around Sakura's leg, and she quickly ran her hands down its length until she found the branch. It was a simple matter to pull the weakened branch from around Sakura's ankle, and the brittle wood crumbled to ash as soon as it was removed. Thinking quickly, Tomoyo grabbed Sakura around the waist and carried her out of the smoke, letting the last remaining tether break of its own accord as she pulled Sakura to safety. Kero grabbed Sakura's collar and lent his own strength to the effort until the three were well clear of the hazard.

"How is she doing?" asked Kero. "Is she breathing?"

Tomoyo rolled Sakura onto her back and cupped her hand over Sakura's mouth. "I don't feel -"

Sakura suddenly coughed and weakly opened her eyes. "Tomoyo... are you okay?"

"You're the one I'm worried about," said Tomoyo, clutching Sakura in a hug. "You were in the fire."

Kero flew down the length of Sakura's body to investigate her condition. "Her left leg looks a little burnt, but it's just on the surface. It could probably use a bandage, but she'll survive."

Tomoyo turned to examine Sakura's leg, expecting far worse than what she saw. The skin was singed a bright red, with specks of black here and there. She pulled the burnt end of the skirt away from the wound and fingered the material lightly. "Sakura... may I use the end of this dress to make a bandage? I'll repair it later, I promise."

Sakura lifted her head to look, but the fabric in Tomoyo's hand blocked her view of the leg. She sighed. "It's already ruined anyway," she agreed. "Don't worry about it. I can get another one."

Tomoyo's face darkened as she tore a strip off the bottom of the dress and returned to the fallen trees to soak it in the hot water. "I'm sorry, Sakura. This was my fault."

Sakura shook her head. "No, it's okay. I'm just glad we're together. I wouldn't want you to have to face this sort of danger alone."

Tomoyo knelt beside Sakura to tie the bandage around her leg. "It's my danger, Sakura. You've already done too much for me, and now you've been hurt because of it. You should go home and let me face this...." She couldn't even get the word 'alone' out of her throat. She couldn't go on without Sakura. If Sakura left, she'd probably just sit right where she was and cry until JOKER found another way to kill her. But as she firmly knotted the strip of cloth around Sakura's calf, she reminded herself that she was responsible for Sakura's suffering. She had to convince Sakura to leave before anything worse happened to her. Why did doing the right thing have to feel so horrible?

She was surprised to feel Sakura's arms wrapped around her. "I won't leave you, ever," whispered Sakura. "No matter how much JOKER hurts me, it's only pain. If anything happened to you because I wasn't here with you, it would never stop hurting."

Well, that explained why it felt so horrible. Sakura was never one to be pried away from protecting her friends, even when she couldn't do anything to protect them. And Tomoyo remembered how doggedly she had stuck by Sakura's side at times, even though she'd had nothing to offer but moral support. She wouldn't have been turned away then, no matter how great the danger. Although she'd sat on the sidelines when things got really bad, she was always there, filming Sakura's bravery for her collection while cheering her on as best she could. Sakura wasn't used to being the moral support - she had always been the one fighting in the past - but she wasn't going to let Tomoyo face anything alone.

Tomoyo wanted to protest again, but she just didn't have it in her. She left it at "Thank you."

Sakura gave her a quick squeeze and released the hug. "Well, let's go. JOKER could attack at any time, so we'd better be ready."

"Are you sure you can walk?" asked Tomoyo.

"My leg doesn't hurt anymore," replied Sakura. "I think I can walk."

Tomoyo stood up and helped Sakura to her feet, much relieved to see that Sakura didn't appear to be in any pain as she placed weight on the injured leg.

"Hey," Kero piped up, "are you going to leave the sword behind?"

Tomoyo turned to look at the discarded weapon. It lay invitingly on the stones of the path, offering its feeling of security by simple virtue of being a weapon to the otherwise unarmed girls. Certainly, it could deal with many of the threats that might face them on the path ahead... but somehow - perhaps because it was a gift from their enemy - Tomoyo was afraid to touch it. "I don't think I can really use it anyway," she said aloud. "I'd be more likely to hurt myself or Sakura if I carried it."

"Don't worry," said Sakura. "I'll carry it. I've use SWORD before, lots of times." She let go of Tomoyo's hand and trotted back to retrieve the sword.

With his usual ironic timing, Kero's brow twitched in sudden realization just as Sakura's fingers closed around the sword's hilt. "Wait, Sakura!" he shouted. "Don't touch it!"

"What's wrong?" asked Tomoyo as Sakura slowly straightened up, holding the sword as naturally as Li would have. "What will happen?"

"Have you forgotten what SWORD's other power is?" replied Kero. "It's a mind-controlling card as well as a weapon. When it's tame, it just gives the user innate skill with the sword, but in its wild state...."

Wordlessly, Sakura turned to face Tomoyo, staring into her with eyes that showed no spark of humanity, merely blank enlarged green irises without pupils. She raised the sword in front of her body, poised as if to leap at any second.

Kero recoiled, cringing in fear at the sight. "This is bad... she's under SWORD's control! And I have a feeling you're going to be her target!"

"How can we stop her?" Tomoyo asked breathlessly, still in shock that her best friend was about to try to kill her.

"It's going to be tough," said Kero. "If you get too close, she'll slice you apart. And throwing things at her won't work either. She'll just cut them out of the sky."

"I don't want to hurt her!" Tomoyo protested. "It's not her fault she's being controlled!"

"I don't think you have a choice," replied Kero. "It's her or you." An idea flashed across his features. "You could use SHOT and incapacitate her!"

"NO!" screamed Tomoyo. "I won't do that!"

As if taking Tomoyo's raised voice as a signal, Sakura leapt into the air, aiming to land right in front of Tomoyo with the sword held horizontally to slice through Tomoyo from head to feet. It was only Kero's quick reflexes that saved her, as he shoved her out of the way of the blade, barely clearing the sword's path himself as it lopped off a few wisps of his tail fuzz.

"She's going to kill us both if you don't do something!" shouted Kero, as Sakura turned to strike again.

"I won't hurt Sakura!" she reiterated, backing away from her possessed friend.

"Then you'd better start running," advised Kero, "because it doesn't look like she has any problem with hurting you!"

"I can't leave her like this!" Tomoyo narrowly ducked a quick swing by Sakura, then rolled out of the way as the sword tore into the paving stones she'd been lying on.

"Look," said Kero, "the only way you can fix this now is to get to the shrine. I'll try to stall Sakura while you go on ahead."

"Are you sure you should -?" she began.

Ignoring her, Kero positioned himself in front of Sakura's face and waved his arms frantically. "Wake up, Sakura! Snap out of it!" he shouted.

Sakura reached up with her free hand and grabbed Kero by the wings, tossing him aside casually yet with enough force to knock him unconscious instantly when he hit a tree headfirst. With the obstacle removed, she set her blank eyes on Tomoyo and raised the sword, assessing the distance between them in preparation for a final, fatal strike.

With one glance at the fallen Kero, Tomoyo's fear for her life finally overrode her concern for Sakura. She spun on a heel and took off at full speed toward the shrine. Sakura's footsteps followed her, slowly catching up as the path continued, seemingly forever. There was no end in sight, and no sign of the shrine, or the courtyard, or anything at all other than the infinite tree-lined path. It felt very wrong, but she didn't have time to stop and consider it. Sakura was in far better shape than Tomoyo was, and Tomoyo's feet were beginning to ache from running on the hard stones with no shoes and only one sock. If Sakura was suffering from her own inadequate footwear, it didn't affect her pace at all.

Knowing that she had no chance against Sakura if she caught up, Tomoyo had no choice but to keep running. But surely she should have reached the shrine by now, several times over! The path had never been this long, had it? It had to be the work of JOKER again, making the path stretch forever so that she could never reach the shrine at its no longer existing end. She'd experienced the phenomenon once before... the work of the LOOP card. She was repeating the same section of the path over and over again in an inescapable loop. Well, not inescapable... if she could locate the end of the loop, and find a way to cut it, the path would return to normal. But without the power of magical sight, that was much easier said than done. The trees all looked the same - in more ways than one - and in the darkness, she had no way to tell where the invisible line was.

Her bare foot came down badly on a cracked paving stone, and she stumbled, giving Sakura time to catch up. She managed to spin around as she fell so that she landed in a sitting position, facing Sakura, but her muscles froze as the sword rose over her, her fear paralyzing her even as sharp death swung down at her head. A vertical slit of light passed between her eyes, and the world split apart as a sharp pang tore through her head. Then, everything cleared, and she found herself staring up at the torii. She raised her hands to her head, expecting to pull them away covered in blood, but there wasn't even a scratch. In fact, there wasn't a mark on her body except for the scrapes on her ankles from earlier.

She stood up, waiting for the last traces of her headache to vanish, while she tried to puzzle out what had just happened to her. The loop was clearly broken, since the path no longer stretched infinitely in both directions, and there was no sign of Sakura.... Tomoyo heaved a relieved sigh as the pieces fit into place. By some miracle, the end of the loop had been right between herself and Sakura, so the sword swing had broken the loop before it could hit her. That meant that the shrine was only as far away as the length of the path, now... but Sakura was waiting for her at the other end, and still under SWORD's control.

Tomoyo suddenly felt very alone, and wished Kero were there to keep her company and help her come up with a plan to restore Sakura to normal without hurting her. Unfortunately, Kero was lying unconscious somewhere further up the path, in the same direction as Sakura. Steeling her nerves and praying for the best, she set off in search of her flying companion, keeping her eyes on the ground and her ears perked for the sound of footsteps. Fortunately, she found Kero first, slumped against the trunk of the tree that Sakura had thrown him at. She picked him up and cradled him gently, examining him for any signs of injury. Thankfully, there were no obvious bruises on his head or body.

"Kero, wake up," she whispered, shaking him lightly. "I need you!"

Kero didn't even stir, leaving Tomoyo at a loss for what to do next. She would have to come up with an idea on her own. But only two cards came to mind: ILLUSION, which was how Sakura had saved her friend Rika from the SWORD card's influence, and SHOT, which had been Kero's only suggestion. She was sure ILLUSION had already been used up, and SHOT was simply out of the question. ARROW was equally unthinkable; shooting Sakura with hundreds of arrows was even worse than a single shot.

A softened footstep caught her ear, interrupting her train of thought. She looked up to see Sakura standing a few feet away, holding her sword expectantly. She had only seconds to act before she was attacked, and she still couldn't think of anything except for those three cards. ILLUSION, SHOT, ARROW... it was useless. Every other card she could think of had already been used. There had to be another card she could use to stop Sakura....

As Sakura stood there, surveying the situation, her hair and dress waved in a slight breeze that blew coldly down the newly unlooped path. It was Sakura's spur to attack; it was also the key Tomoyo needed to come up with a plan. "JOKER!" she shouted as Sakura shifted her weight and prepared to strike. "Pin Sakura down with arrows! But only hit her clothes!"

Several horizontal shafts of light appeared, surrounding Tomoyo with brilliant blue arrows. As Sakura leapt forward, the arrows shot toward her, barely missing her as they caught in the fabric of what remained of her sundress. Her forward momentum stopped instantly, and she fell backward, landing on her back with the arrows holding her torso and shoulders on the ground. Silently, she twisted and strained, trying to stand up, but the arrows gave her no room to maneuver.

Tomoyo was stunned to see Sakura so unconcerned at her predicament, as if she were a single-minded machine rather than the girl she'd come to love as her best friend. The fear she'd been feeling all along became mixed with a new emotion - the sinking feeling of betrayal as she had been forced to turn her power against Sakura. But the sound of tearing cloth broke the spell, as Sakura's dress tore, freeing her from one of the arrows. Tomoyo dashed forward, realizing that if Sakura were to escape, there would be no way to stop her again.

Sakura raised the sword threateningly as Tomoyo approached, unable to move her arm above the elbow but still using what mobility she had to keep the blade between herself and Tomoyo. Tomoyo held back, afraid that if she got too close, Sakura would manage to cut her. As soon as she stopped, Sakura resumed her struggles, freeing her entire left side as she rolled over, snapping the arrows on her right side in half. Without hesitating, Tomoyo leapt onto her while her sword arm was pinned and threw her body across Sakura's. She felt the blade trace a slash across her back, but she doggedly held on with both arms.

"Please wake up, Sakura!" she shouted, reaching blindly for Sakura's sword hand. She closed her hand tightly around the handle and pushed it away, hoping to at least prevent Sakura from using it, if she couldn't dislodge it from her grip. But Sakura fought back with inhuman strength, making Tomoyo's arm ache after only a few seconds of wrestling. She stared directly into Sakura's blank eyes, searching for any clue that would tell her how to break the spell. All she saw was her own reflection, her face tall and narrow with deep worry, for Sakura as much as for herself. It reminded her of a fairy tale, and the idea struck her as foolish, but it was still an idea. If it didn't work, she wouldn't be any worse off for trying it.

Lowering her head until their noses touched, Tomoyo closed her eyes, whispered "I love you, Sakura, even if you run me through," and pressed her lips to Sakura's in a kiss. The sword clattered noisily to the ground beside her, and she quickly kicked it out of Sakura's reach, just in case.

As the sword scraped across the pavement stones, Sakura groaned and turned her head, breaking the kiss. Tomoyo pushed herself up, but kept enough of her weight on Sakura that the other girl wouldn't be able to get up, if she was still bewitched. But when Sakura finally opened her eyes, they had returned to normal. "Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo saw a tear fall onto Sakura's cheek and realized that she was crying. "Oh, Sakura!" she breathed joyfully, pulling Sakura up into the warmest hug of the evening. "I'm so glad you're all right!"

"What happened?" asked Sakura. "I remember picking up the sword...."

"You were possessed by the sword!" explained Tomoyo. "You tried to kill me, but I snapped you out of it."

"Oh no! Did I hurt you?"

Tomoyo's back gave a twinge as Sakura mentioned pain, but she shook her head emphatically. "No. I'm fine," she lied, hoping to spare Sakura as much guilt as she could.

"I'm sorry," Sakura apologized. "It was my fault."

"It's all right," replied Tomoyo. "We're okay now. That's all that matters."

"Yep," said Sakura with a nod. "We survived another challenge." She lifted her head and looked around. "Say, where's Kero?"

Tomoyo's heart skipped a beat. "Kero?" She gasped and climbed to her feet, scanning the ground. "I must have dropped him somewhere!"

"Dropped him?" Sakura asked as she sat up. "What do you mean, dropped him?"

"I was holding him, and then -" She quickly broke off, remembering her resolve to shield Sakura from knowledge of her actions under SWORD's control. She couldn't tell Sakura that she'd hurt Kero!

"Why were you holding Kero?" Sakura asked as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"Um, I..." Tomoyo stalled, trying to think of a plausible explanation. Her heart sank again as she realized that she was planning to lie to Sakura. But she had to. She was lying to protect Sakura.

When Sakura failed to ask again, Tomoyo looked up, wondering whether Sakura had figured out why she wasn't answering. But Sakura's mouth hung wide open, and her entire body was shaking as she stared at something behind Tomoyo. Her lips moved, trying to form words, but no sound came out. Gripped by fear, Tomoyo spun around and found herself looking up into a tiny but intense ball of light. It was much brighter than GLOW, and unlike the harmless light-type card, it gave Tomoyo chills just to look at it.

Before she could remember where she'd seen the light before, it pulsed quickly and emitted a tiny spark, aimed directly at her heart. Her muscles froze in shock, and she was paralyzed, helpless to do anything but watch as SHOT's attack closed the distance.

Sakura's shout of "Tomoyo!" pierced the silence as a pair of hands roughly pounded Tomoyo's side, pushing her out of the way of the projectile. She lost her balance and fell to the ground, landing in a sitting position as Sakura fell into her lap. She wrapped her arms protectively around Sakura, not taking her eyes off the ball of light until it vanished. She released the breath she'd been holding and gave Sakura a grateful squeeze.

"Thank you, Sakura," she said to the girl in her arms. "You saved me again."

Sakura didn't respond. She lay unmoving across Tomoyo's legs, so still that Tomoyo couldn't even feel her body moving as she breathed. That was when she felt the warm moisture seeping into her dress, and knew what it was even before she looked down and saw the dark red stain spreading over her lap. Horrified, her throat seized up, and she couldn't get out the scream that was trapped in her chest. When she finally did manage to get the words out, they came as a mere whisper. "S-Sakura?"

She clutched Sakura's body tightly to her chest as she felt the tears begin to pour freely from her eyes, and she repeated Sakura's name over and over, louder and louder as her voice returned. But nothing she could do would change what had happened. Without even a chance to say her heroic last words, Sakura Kinomoto had given her precious life to save her friend.

  



	9. Tomoyo's Odyssey Ends

52 Curses

Chapter 9: Tomoyo's Odyssey Ends

Kero slowly pushed himself up on his front paws, groaning with the lingering pain of a colossal headache. "Oh, man.... Did anyone get the number of that cart?" He rubbed his head. "Is this one of those hangovers Clow was always talking about? Feels like it... but I thought you had to get drunk to have one." Suddenly, the real memories flooded back, and he leapt into the air, frantically searching for Sakura and Tomoyo. "Yo, Tomoyo! Are you still alive out there? Did you stop Sakura?"

A faint sob caught his ear, and he zipped off down the path, soon spotting Tomoyo sitting in the middle of the stone walkway with Sakura lying across her lap. "Oh, thank goodness," he sighed.

"It's not right," Tomoyo whined softly, shaking her head and clutching Sakura's head to her chest. "It's just not right!"

Kero swooped down to her level. "Hey, what's the matter? Did you snap Sakura out of that spell yet?"

Tomoyo looked up at him with her eyes full of tears. "Sakura... Sakura is...."

Kero's gaze quickly traced its way down to where Sakura lay, her blood pooling in a large stain on Tomoyo's dress. He gasped in shock. "Oh man! She isn't...."

"It was SHOT," confirmed Tomoyo.

"Ah, what were you thinking?" shouted Kero. "I said knock her out with SHOT, not kill her!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Tomoyo cried. "I used ARROW to pin her down, but once I got the sword out of her hand, SHOT attacked me. Sakura pushed me out of the way, but then she... she...." Her voice gave out as she burst into tears all over again.

Kero patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, don't cry yourself dry, Tomoyo. Sakura didn't give up her life so you could sit here mourning her forever. You've got a job to do, to make her sacrifice worthwhile."

Tomoyo glared at him with all the accusation she could muster. "Don't you care about her at all?"

"Hey, there's not a lot we can do for her right now," Kero shot back. "But you're still alive, and still in danger. I know if Sakura were still alive, she'd ask me to protect you, and that's what I'm going to do. There will be plenty of time to cry later."

"What does it matter now?" asked Tomoyo. "Sakura's dead!"

"You mattered a lot to her," Kero reminded her. "She gave up her life to save you. You were worth everything to her."

"And she meant the same to me!" Tomoyo lowered her head, letting it rest on Sakura's shoulder. "I don't want to be alive if it means Sakura has to die!"

"Hey, watch your language!" warned Kero. "JOKER's still listening!"

"I don't care!" Tomoyo shouted, so forcefully that it drove Kero back several inches. "JOKER's taken away the only thing that matters to me!"

Kero blinked blankly. "You're serious.... But there's really nothing you can do. Not even the power of the Clow Cards can bring someone back to life. No magic can."

Tomoyo looked up at him hopefully. "What about JOKER? It's much more powerful than any other magic!"

Kero shook his head. "If it hasn't granted that wish yet, it must be beyond its power as well."

Tomoyo's heart sank to a new depth at Kero's words. Even while they were in danger, being with Sakura had always made things bearable, even fun. She'd taken for granted the belief that they'd be together forever, and in an instant, JOKER had shattered it. Emotions churned within her heart: confusion, loneliness, fear. But as the shock passed from her system, one emotion surged to the top - anger. She clenched her fists on Sakura's dress and closed her eyes.

"Is this how you try to make me happy?" she asked the air. "Is this how you grant my wishes?"

Kero recoiled. "You don't sound like yourself, Tomoyo...."

"I hate you, JOKER!" she shouted. "I hate everything you've ever done! I don't want your help or your wishes! All the wishes in the world mean nothing to me if I can't be with Sakura!"

Suddenly, Tomoyo felt Sakura grow very warm in her arms, and heard a sharp gasp from Kero. An intense light was radiating from the lifeless body, so brightly that it burned her eyes even though they were screwed tightly closed. The brightness and heat quickly intensified until they were painful, and Tomoyo had to pull her knees out from under the body and crawl in the opposite direction until she was a safe distance away. A few seconds later, the light faded, restoring the cool, dark summer night that it had interrupted.

Timidly, she turned around to see what effect the light had had on Sakura. At first, nothing seemed to have changed, but as she watched, Sakura groaned and sat up, rubbing her chest. "Huh? What's going on?" she asked, looking around. "What happened to me?"

Joy filled Tomoyo until she felt like she would burst. She sprang forward, throwing herself on top of Sakura so violently that they slid across the rough stones. "SAKURA!" she cried. "I thought you were dead!"

Sakura's arms slowly rose, inch by inch, to encircle her. "Tomoyo...."

"I thought you were gone forever!" Tomoyo continued, spilling the words that were inside her without pause. "I thought I would never get to see you again! I didn't know what I was going to do without you!"

"It's okay, Tomoyo," Sakura assured her. "I feel fine now."

"It's not okay!" whined Tomoyo. "It was all my fault! You risked yourself for me, and I would never forgive myself if that happened! I never want to be away from you again!"

Sakura laughed uncomfortably. "Don't worry. I'm not going to leave you again." She pried at Tomoyo's arms, but they held firm. "Um, could you let go of me now?"

"No!" Tomoyo protested, squeezing Sakura even tighter. "I'm never going to let you go again! Never! I'll always hold on to you forever!"

Kero tapped Tomoyo on the shoulder. "I'm afraid you're going to have to let go of her sooner or later. We can't just lie around here forever, you know."

"I'm scared," Tomoyo whispered through the tears that hadn't ever stopped. "If I let go, anything could happen. Sakura could die again. I want to be like this forever. I want to be with Sakura...."

"All right," agreed Sakura. "I'll hold you a while longer."

Time passed like that, and Tomoyo didn't know or care how long it was. Every moment of it was more precious to her than anything she could imagine.

"Okay, time to get moving," Kero said at last. "We've got to finish here and be back home before your father figures out you're gone."

Tomoyo sat up sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't think about that."

"Don't worry about it," replied Sakura. "We'll make it in time." She started to stand up and stumbled slightly.

Tomoyo caught her and helped her up. "Sakura, did it heal you completely?" she asked. "Do you still have any injuries?"

Three pairs of eyes traced up and down Sakura's body. Not only had the gaping hole in her chest vanished as if it had never been, but her burned leg had been healed as well. Even her dress was back to its original condition again, with no sign that it had been burnt, ripped, and torn to make a bandage.

Kero nodded his head in a brand-new sense of admiration. "THAT... is some powerful magic. Not even Clow at his most powerful could heal more than little scratches. And he always said that reviving the dead was impossible."

"Then what card was it that brought me back to life?" asked Sakura.

"There was a bright light," replied Tomoyo. "It must have been the power of LIGHT."

"Is LIGHT a healing card?" asked Sakura.

Kero shook his head. "Not that I know of. LIGHT is just a card that makes light, the same way that DARK makes everything dark. But while Sakura was still capturing cards, LIGHT was inside her the whole time. I suppose you could say that LIGHT is the energy within Sakura. So if anything has the power to heal her, it would be that card... but I don't think it would have enough power to heal physical wounds on its own. It must be because JOKER can use 52 times the original strength of the card."

"But you said JOKER wasn't powerful enough," Tomoyo pointed out.

Kero hummed to himself in thought. "Well, your wish for Sakura to live was pretty strong. Dangerously strong, I would say. The kind of strength that sometimes lets even non-magical people tap into their life energy to do some amazing things. With that much desire backing a wish, I wouldn't be surprised if JOKER really could pull it off." He chuckled. "Of course, that's because I've just seen it happen."

Sakura tried to cover her face to hide her blush. "Um... maybe we should keep going."

Kero saw her discomfort and tactfully agreed. "Yeah, we'd better move it before JOKER does something else."

"What other powers does JOKER have left?" Tomoyo wondered aloud.

Kero shrugged. "No way to get an accurate count of how many cards are left, but there probably aren't many. And most of the dangerous ones have been used up. All four elements, SHOT and ARROW, MIST, TIME, STORM, THUNDER.... Sakura, can you think of any I'm forgetting?"

Sakura pulled out the Clow Deck. "We could look through all of the cards and try to figure out which ones are left..." she suggested.

Tomoyo tugged at Sakura's sleeve. The trees were beginning to feel close, and even though she knew that WOOD had been used up, it still made her feel nervous. "I think we should just go. The shrine is just ahead."

"No sense rushing in when we don't know what we're facing," said Kero. "A little planning goes a long way."

"No, I think she's right," countered Sakura. "I feel something from up ahead. Something bad will happen if we don't hurry!"

Kero sat back and shrugged while the girls raced ahead. "Fine, fine. Nobody listens to my sage advice anymore anyway...." With a heavy sigh, he floated after them, only to bump into Sakura's back as she abruptly stopped at the boundary of the courtyard. "Hey, what gives?"

"Miss Mizuki's house..." replied Sakura breathlessly. "It's buried in snow!"

Kero gaped at the white, rounded house-sized mound at the side of the courtyard. "It's SNOW!"

"How could JOKER attack Miss Mizuki?" asked Sakura.

"I've gotta admit, it's a pretty effective tactic," said Kero. "Getting here doesn't do you much good if you can't get to Miss Mizuki."

"But Miss Mizuki has always been immune to the powers of the Clow Cards," Tomoyo pointed out.

"She just has a great deal of magical power of her own," Kero corrected her. "Competing magics are nothing more than a battle of wills, and hers is more than enough to counter a Clow Card, maybe even two. But JOKER has a lot more power than that. And with enough power, ANY form of protection can be broken."

"That's not what I meant," Sakura cut in, a tear running down her cheek. "Miss Mizuki didn't do anything. Why would JOKER attack her? We're the ones it's after, not her!"

"She's wrapped up in this too, as much as you are," replied Kero. "But I'm sure she can handle herself. Even if she's not as powerful as JOKER is, she's not helpless."

"We still have to do something!" Sakura said determinedly. She ran to the base of the massive snow hill and began to dig at it with her bare hands, hardly making a dent in the huge pile of snow.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Kero. "You can't tunnel through this much snow!"

"I have to try! There's no way for air to get in! Miss Mizuki could suffocate!"

"You're just going to get frostbite digging like that," said Kero. "You're not dressed for the snow." He sighed. "Too bad there's no Clow Card to summon a steam shovel."

"Help me, Tomoyo!" pleaded Sakura. "We have to hurry!"

Tomoyo looked up at the impossibly grand obstacle and shook her head. "It's too big. There's nothing we can do about it." But even as she finished her sentence, her own words gave her an idea. "Unless.... JOKER! Make Sakura and me big enough to clear away the snow!"

Sakura chuckled with elation as her body began to grow. "Great idea, Tomoyo!"

As always, Tomoyo couldn't help blushing at Sakura's praise, but this time, there was a job to do. She turned her attention to the mound of snow in front of her and carefully scraped at it with her fingers, well aware that at her increased size, she could easily destroy Miss Mizuki's house if she didn't watch what she was doing.

It didn't take long for the girls to remove most of the snow, leaving little more than a light coat over the entire house. Tomoyo efficiently brushed the front clean with the tail of her bloodstained dress and nodded in satisfaction. "JOKER, return us to our normal size," she commanded.

The front door opened while Tomoyo's head was still as high as the roof, and Miss Mizuki stepped out with a smile on her face. "Hello, Miss Kinomoto, Miss Daidouji. You've grown since I saw you last."

"Are you okay, Miss Mizuki?" asked Sakura. "We dug you out as quickly as we could!"

"I'm fine," she assured them, crossing the courtyard to the place where the girls had ended up after they'd returned to normal size. "It will take more than a little snow to finish me off." She favored Sakura with a wink.

"I'm so glad!" cried Sakura.

"I'm rather surprised to see you girls here," Miss Mizuki continued. "I honestly didn't think you'd be able to reach me. And I thought you'd bring Mr. Li with you if you tried."

"Then you know what's going on?" asked Sakura.

Miss Mizuki shook her head. "I'm afraid I only know what Mr. Li told me earlier today, and he didn't know much at the time. And my own magic has been very weak since yesterday afternoon. I couldn't even feel the presence of JOKER until the snowstorm began."

"Do you know how to defeat JOKER?" asked Sakura.

Miss Mizuki laid a finger across her cheek and thought. "My senses are still weak. I suspect that JOKER is blocking them somehow, just as it's blocking the Clow Cards and Mr. Li's magic. But it might be possible to somehow .............................." Her mouth continued to move, but no sound came out.

"............" said Sakura, equally silently. She clutched her throat and tried again. "..............."

Tomoyo decided to give speaking a try as well. "............................." It was useless; she couldn't make a sound, just like when her voice had been stolen by the VOICE card. But she was sure that JOKER had already used the power of VOICE when it had talked to her before.

She looked at the others for guidance, but Sakura was still vainly flapping her mouth, trying to talk, while Miss Mizuki stood in deep thought. Kero tried to shout to get Sakura's attention, then perched on her shoulder when that failed, tugging on her ear to shut her up and calm her down. As Sakura joined the others in quiet contemplation, Tomoyo realized that their voices weren't the only victims of JOKER's latest effect. There was no sound at all - not even the background of crickets chirping and leaves rustling that the ear tended not to notice until its absence stood out.

Sakura cocked her head as she, too, realized the strangeness of the total silence. She stamped a foot experimentally, producing no sound. She nodded slowly and turned to Tomoyo. "......." she mouthed, still not making a sound, but Tomoyo managed to pick out the word from her lips: SILENT.

Miss Mizuki seemed satisfied with that analysis, and watched the girls expectantly with a new brightness in her eyes. Unfortunately, Tomoyo wasn't any closer to a solution for knowing what had caused the problem. It seemed like Miss Mizuki saw something the others didn't, but if she did, why didn't she offer any help? After they'd fought through so many obstacles to reach her, she seemed surprisingly unhelpful. Then again... JOKER had gone to a lot of trouble to keep them away from Miss Mizuki, and it had finally silenced her just before she could tell them how to defeat it. Clearly, there was SOMETHING she could do that made JOKER afraid... but what?

Miss Mizuki was smiling slyly at Tomoyo now, as if she could read her mind. She was definitely waiting for Tomoyo to do or say something. But even Tomoyo didn't know what that could be. There was only one idea in her mind, and it couldn't possibly be right. Still, at least she could suggest it. Maybe it would give Sakura some inspiration. "......................." she shouted, remembering only afterward that she couldn't speak. Instead, she clenched a fist and waved it up and down in front of her, miming ringing the sacred bell.

Miss Mizuki nodded in recognition and backed into the house, emerging a few seconds later with the familiar D-shaped, ribbon-adorned bell in her hand. Tomoyo gasped inaudibly at the sight of the instrument that had supposedly vanished during Sakura's final judgment, but Sakura was more overjoyed than worried. Miss Mizuki calmly raised the bell over her head and gave it a firm shake. The resulting echoing drone was so thick as to be almost visible as it radiated outward, slowly giving way to the natural background noise.

"Can we talk now?" asked Sakura, answering her own question. "That was scary!"

Kero fluttered over to Miss Mizuki. "Good thing you had that bell. I suspect that's what JOKER was so afraid of all this time."

Miss Mizuki nodded. "This bell holds power over the Clow Cards. It seems that even JOKER is powerless against it."

"But I thought the bell vanished after you used it before," Tomoyo said, voicing her suspicion.

"Yeah, that's right," agreed Sakura. "You said that once its purpose was complete, the bell disappeared."

Miss Mizuki smiled. "That was a different bell, a copy of the one I have now. This bell was an heirloom of my family for centuries before Clow came. When he saw how effective the bell was at subverting the power of his cards, he created a copy of it for the specific purpose of giving Sakura a second chance at Yue's test. This bell, the original, is the one I used to break through MAZE shortly after we first met."

"I don't understand," said Tomoyo. "Why does that bell have power over the Clow Cards if it's not the one that Mr. Clow created?"

"Clow was not a religious man," replied Miss Mizuki. "And since magic relies so heavily on belief, his disbelief in religion makes his magic defenseless against holy relics."

"Then that bell is...?" Sakura began, pointing at the bell.

"It was blessed by the Buddha himself," said Miss Mizuki.

Kero scratched his head. "Call me unenlightened, but I don't recall the Buddha being the type of guy who went around blessing things."

"Indeed," agreed Miss Mizuki. "That's what makes this bell so rare. You see, it was crafted by a master metalsmith who had heard that the Buddha would be passing near his village. The smith put all of his talent into creating the most intricate, beautiful bell he'd ever made, with a sound that would make even the mountains bend down to listen. Or so it was said." She winked. "I've never actually seen a mountain bend to it, but its tone is quite unique."

"Then the bell was a gift for the Buddha?" asked Tomoyo.

"That's right. However, when the smith went to present the bell to the Buddha, he gave it back, saying, 'I have no use for such a thing, even if it is well-crafted. It would go to waste in my possession. Instead, you should keep this bell and ring it outside your shop. Many will hear its beautiful sound and, amazed at your skill, they will commission many jobs from you and you will prosper.'

"After that, the smith returned to his village and, as the Buddha had suggested, rang the bell to attract customers. Sure enough, he soon became so busy that he had to hire a young man from the village to ring the bell for him so that he could spend all of his time working. And the bell eventually passed to my family, although no one remembers how that came to be."

Kero nodded sagely. "When you put it that way, it makes sense."

"But isn't this a Shinto shrine?" asked Sakura. "Why would you have a Buddhist holy relic?"

Miss Mizuki smiled warmly. "Power is power. Sometimes, it's enough to believe in power even if you don't believe in where it came from."

"Personally, I'm not going to question what works," said Kero.

"So, if you've had that bell all this time, why didn't you use it sooner?" asked Sakura.

"If I used my own power whenever you were in trouble, how would your magic ever grow?" replied Miss Mizuki. "There are certainly times when I could have used the bell to help you, but because you solved the problems yourself, you became stronger. You have much more growing to do yet before you can truly become the Master of the Clow."

"But I AM the Master of the Clow!" protested Sakura. "Tell her, Kero!"

"You may hold the Clow Cards," argued Kero, "but your power isn't nearly what Clow's was."

"KERO!" shouted Sakura. "I thought I was supposed to be your master! You're supposed to support me!"

Kero crossed his arms indignantly. "I draw the line at lying just to make you feel important."

Tomoyo chuckled at the always-lively interaction between the two, but her grin vanished as she noticed the wary expression on her former teacher's face. "Miss Mizuki, is something wrong?" she asked.

Miss Mizuki nodded. "I feel a presence. JOKER is still here, and its presence is much stronger than before."

Sakura blinked. "I feel it too. I think my powers have returned."

Kero nodded. "Yeah, my power's returned as well. The bell must have canceled the block that JOKER placed on Clow's magic."

"Then I can capture JOKER?" asked Sakura excitedly.

"It won't be quite as easy as that," said a voice from behind the girls. They spun around to face the small figure dressed in colorful checkered clothes and a floppy hat, reminiscent of the picture on the ERASE card. In one hand, it held a staff topped with several colored feathers. When the girls saw the figure, it hopped into the air, cocked its head, and smiled broadly.

"Are you... JOKER?" asked Tomoyo.

"Correct!" JOKER darted toward Tomoyo, spun around her head, and planted a flower in her hair. "I'm the one who's been causing all your troubles, and once I'm caught, it will all seem like a bad dream."

"All right!" shouted Sakura, pulling the transformed Clow Key from around her neck. "Then I'll capture you!"

JOKER shook its head. "But I can't let it be that easy, can I? You'll have to catch me before you can catch me!" It held the staff above its head horizontally and spun it like a helicopter blade. Before Sakura could even begin the chant to summon the Clow Wand, JOKER soared up into the sky and out of sight.

"We have to go after it!" shouted Tomoyo.

Sakura shook her head. "No, Tomoyo. You should stay here. It will be too dangerous."

"No!" Tomoyo protested. "I'm coming with you! JOKER is my problem, and I'll see it through to the end, no matter what!"

"But I'll need to use the wand to fly, and also to capture JOKER..." began Sakura. A rush of air cut her off, as Kero vanished into a cocoon formed by a pair of giant wings. When the wings opened, Kerberos' original form stood there, in all its lionesque majesty.

Sakura screamed and fell down. "Oh, Kero! It's only you!" she exclaimed as she stood up.

"Get on my back," said Kerberos, his normal Osaka accent sounding rather strange coming from such a regal beast. "I'll take care of the flying."

"Great!" enthused Sakura, leaping onto Kerberos' back. "Your true form is really cool!" She reached down to help Tomoyo climb up, and then they were aloft. Kerberos' powerful wings beat heavily at the air as he chased JOKER into the sky.

"Good luck, you two!" Miss Mizuki called up to them as they flew away. "Don't underestimate your own abilities!"

They finally found JOKER sitting in the air high above the city, reclining comfortably and reading a newspaper. "Took you long enough," it said, tossing the paper aside. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me."

Kerberos growled. "I don't like this card much," he said. "It's an incredible showoff that loves to prove that it's not bound by the power of Clow. Sakura, get ready to capture it!"

"Right!" Sakura held the Clow Key in her outstretched palm. "Key which hides the powers of darkness, return to your true form. I, Sakura, command you under our contract. RELEASE!" She waited expectantly for the key to become the Clow Wand, but as before, nothing happened. "It still doesn't work!" she whined.

"What could be wrong with it?" asked Tomoyo. "Kero's power was unsealed, so the Clow Wand should also work, shouldn't it?"

JOKER cocked its head to the side and chuckled. "Having a little trouble there, Sakura?" It shook its head sadly. "That won't do. Your battle will be over before it's started if you can't use your magic."

"Try it again!" urged Kerberos. "It's the only way you'll be able to stop JOKER!"

Sakura focused all of her energy on the Clow Key, straining until she felt a bit of life flowing through it. With much relief, she concentrated on that power. "RELEASE!"

This time, the key transformed successfully, expanding in Sakura's hand to become the relatively familiar form of the Clow Wand - "relatively" due to the transformation that had turned the bird's head ornament into a ringed star when Sakura had completed the final judgment. "I did it!" she shouted.

"Hurry up and use a Clow Card!" shouted Kerberos.

Sakura drew a Clow Card from the folds of her clothing. "Wind, become a binding chain!" she chanted, hurling the card into the air. She swung her wand down to strike the card's face. "WINDY!" Suddenly, from where the card had been, the spirit of wind emerged, surrounded by gusts of air so thick that they were visible to the naked eye. WINDY quickly set its sights on JOKER and flew at top speed, sending its ropes of air ahead of itself.

JOKER laughed gleefully. "It begins!" It lowered its staff and pointed it at the approaching wind spirit. Lightning leapt from the tip of the staff, forming a cage around WINDY for a split second before the cage contracted, binding WINDY helplessly.

"No good!" cried Kerberos as WINDY returned to its card form and flew back to Sakura's hand.

"But that was THUNDER!" protested Sakura. "You already used THUNDER before!"

"And I used FLY as well," JOKER replied calmly. "But once my hold on Tomoyo was broken, I was freed from the constraints that bound me before. There is no limit to my power now."

"Don't give up, Sakura," urged Tomoyo. "You can do it!"

Sakura returned WINDY to the Clow Deck and pulled out another card. "I'll try an attack card this time!" she declared. "WATERY!"

JOKER stood firm in the face of the advancing water spirit. It raised its free hand, pointing the index finger and thumb to form a mock handgun. With a fake sound like a bullet leaving the gun's barrel, it snapped its thumb down, pretending to recoil from the bullet's force. Instantly, WATERY became a sculpture of ice mere inches away from JOKER. JOKER tapped WATERY's face with its staff, shattering it into hundreds of pieces which quickly returned to card form.

Kerberos snarled in frustration. "WATERY should be stronger than FREEZE... but then, JOKER's magic is more powerful than any Clow Card."

"I can't give up!" shouted Sakura, selecting another card. "FIREY!"

JOKER yawned, then sent a gushing torrent of water from the tip of its staff before FIREY could even get close. FIREY vanished into a cloud of steam with a cry of pain, then turned tail and returned to Sakura's hand.

"Those were three of the elemental cards - the most powerful cards in the deck - but JOKER handled them like they were nothing!" announced Kerberos. "And EARTHY won't do you any good up here!"

"I just need to try something different," said Sakura. She replaced FIREY with another card and called upon its magic. "Pierce my opponent with magical shafts! ARROW!"

JOKER took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, sending a gust of wind that scattered the arrows before they could get close.

"That won't work either," said Kerberos. "When you attack from a distance, JOKER has plenty of time to counter."

"Then I'll just have to get closer." Sakura slipped ARROW back into the deck and drew two more cards. "Kero, get ready."

"What are you -" Kerberos began, before Sakura lowered the cards so that he could see their faces. "Don't worry," he assured her. "You can count on me."

Sakura nodded and tossed one of the cards into the air. "JUMP!" A pair of wings sprouted from each of her heels, and she leapt toward JOKER in a graceful arc.

JOKER simply sat back and waited expectantly to see what Sakura was planning.

At the top of her leap, Sakura threw the other card and struck it with the wand. "SWORD!" As the SWORD card vanished, the Clow Wand turned into the sword pictured on the card. She swung it downward with her descent, aiming for JOKER's head.

JOKER simply blinked, and in the next instant, Sakura was falling past it empty-handed. She caught a momentary glimpse of the goofy grin on its face before she passed it, only just remembering to get her legs under her before she landed on Kerberos' back. "What happened?" she whined.

"Mmrph," replied Kerberos.

"The sword jumped out of your hands and appeared next to you," explained Tomoyo. "Kero caught it in his mouth."

Sakura reached down and retrieved the wand from Kerberos' mouth. "Thanks, Kero."

"I think it knocked a tooth loose," he moaned.

"Even a sword is subject to JOKER's power," said Sakura, setting her sights on JOKER again. She shoved the SWORD card roughly into the deck and extracted a different card. "I just won't use a sword this time."

"What are you planning now?" asked Kerberos. "Don't tell me you're going to try -"

"FIGHT!" shouted Sakura, activating the power of the card. Still under JUMP's power, she leapt from Kerberos' back, raising her fists in preparation to fight hand-to-hand with JOKER.

"Is she crazy?" asked Kerberos, swinging around to get into position to catch her when she fell. "This isn't Dragonball! She can't fight in midair!"

"Be careful, Sakura!" Tomoyo called after her.

JOKER hunkered down as Sakura approached and met her charge with its arms over its face, blocking her initial flurry of punches. With each attack, Sakura struck downward, using the force of her own attacks to remain airborne as JOKER remained in place with its magic.

"Man, that's some skill," said Kerberos, impressed. "You show that card who's boss, Sakura!"

Just as Sakura seemed to be gaining the upper hand, JOKER spun around her attack and dealt her a fierce chop in the side, following up with a series of kicks. Sakura grabbed its shoulder for support while she blocked with one leg, raising the Clow Wand to use it as a club. JOKER blocked with its own staff and kicked Sakura in the stomach, nearly breaking her grip. Gritting her teeth, Sakura kicked back with full force, hitting one of JOKER's thighs. Finally back in control of the fight, she pulled both legs to her chest and kicked at JOKER's lower half over and over.

JOKER swung its arm at Sakura's head, but she easily blocked it with her wand, thrilled that she was finally winning the battle. However, when she looked back into JOKER's face, it was still wearing that same confident, cocky grin, showing no sign of pain or worry. She had only seconds to think about what that meant before she felt an impact on the back of her head. While her vision swam in stars, she spun around to face an identical copy of JOKER and raised her arm just in time to block a second punch aimed at her face.

"Sakura, watch out!" Kerberos shouted unnecessarily. "There are two JOKERs!"

"Don't let them gang up on you, Sakura!" added Tomoyo.

Sakura did her best to take Tomoyo's advice, but quickly found it impossible to keep up with the attacks coming from both sides at once. She was pounded by fists and feet again and again, helplessly bouncing back and forth between the copies until one of them moved aside to let her fall onto Kerberos' back. Tomoyo pushed her into a sitting position. "Sakura, are you okay?" she asked.

Sakura rubbed her chest and tightened her grip on the wand. "Two against one... no fair!"

Kerberos grinned slyly. "Then why don't you even things up?"

"Yeah, good idea!" agreed Sakura. She pulled out another card. "Make a copy of me to fight our enemy," she chanted. "MIRROR!" The card shone brightly and expanded into a full-length mirror that contained not a reflection of Sakura, but the image of the MIRROR spirit. The spirit within the mirror quickly moved toward the glass, changing into Sakura's form as it passed the plane of the mirror. The copy-Sakura opened her eyes and nodded to the original.

"Can you use the power of FIGHT?" asked Sakura, swaying slightly with the effort of sustaining three cards' effects at once.

"I'm pretty sure I can," replied Copy-Sakura.

"All right, then!" shouted Sakura, pointing at JOKER. "Let's go!"

One of the JOKERs casually formed a finger-gun and pretended to shoot the copy, shattering it into dust. Tomoyo quickly covered her eyes and suppressed a sob.

Sakura gaped at the space where her twin had been. "Kero, what just happened?" she asked.

"It felt like ERASE to me," replied Kerberos. "Looks like a fair fight is out of the question."

Sakura sat down and clutched the wand tightly. "What can I do? I'm all out of ideas!"

Tomoyo opened her eyes and glanced at JOKER, which had returned to one body and looked ready to pounce. "Sakura, watch out!" she shouted, as JOKER closed the distance with lightning speed, stopping just short of Sakura as she cringed in fear. As Sakura relaxed, confused, JOKER gave her a wave and a smile before curling its middle finger and plucking Sakura sharply on the forehead. The tiny blow sent Sakura flying out of sight.

"Sakura!" shouted Kerberos. "Man, there's no way I'll be able to catch her!"

"I wouldn't worry about her right now," said JOKER. "She'll be fine." It turned to Tomoyo with a look of disappointment on its face. "Tomoyo, are you just going to sit there and let Sakura do all the work?" it asked. "If she's your friend, you should at least try to think of a way to help her."

"But I don't have any magic," Tomoyo argued, wondering why JOKER was suddenly taking such an interest in her again.

"That didn't stop you before," JOKER reminded her, floating back to its previous position.

Sakura soon emerged from the clouds below, riding on her giant-winged wand with her eyes spiraling dizzily. "I almost forgot I had the FLY card," she explained as she shook off her dizziness and set her sights on JOKER again. "I'll be able to get close now, for sure!"

JOKER smoothly swung its staff in a circle, sending the air around Sakura swirling into a thick tornado. She screamed as she was buffeted from side to side within the spinning storm, attacked anew each time she tried to move toward the center. Fortunately, she was familiar with how to defeat the power of STORM after having watched Li capture the card so long ago. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sound of the whistling wind, instead trying to feel where the magic was weakest. As the wind tore at her face, she started to move back before she felt the depression just to her right. She leaned in that direction, steering herself into the eye of the storm, and readied her attack as the wind died down around her. She pulled the wand from between her legs, threw the card downward into the heart of the storm, and activated it. "THUNDER!" Lightning shot from the card in all directions, scattering the spiral of air.

"Way to go, Sakura!" cheered Kerberos. "That's the Card Captor I chose!"

JOKER nodded its approval. "Well done," it agreed. "Next time, I'll have to trap you inside something a bit more fiendish." It stretched out its arms as if preparing to launch something at Sakura from its palms. What emerged, though, were large green ropes that expanded into blocks, forming right angles and staircases as they snaked their way around JOKER and toward Sakura.

"Sakura, watch out!" shouted Kerberos. "That's MAZE! It's trying to trap you inside!"

Sakura shrieked and pulled back, out of reach of the expanding green corridors. When they finally stopped moving, the green walls had formed a giant box around JOKER with many entrances, like a giant Menger sponge. She stared up at the impossibly huge wall and groaned. "How am I supposed to get to JOKER now?"

"Only one of those entrances will lead to JOKER," said Kerberos. "And even if you choose the right one, you could still get lost trying to find your way through."

"At least you know where JOKER is, and that it can't attack you while it's inside the maze," Tomoyo pointed out.

Sakura perked up. "That's right!" she realized, pulling a card out of the Clow Deck. She held it in front of her face and chanted. "Trap JOKER within this mazelike prison!" She leapt off the wand just long enough to tap the card. "LOCK!" With a loud CLANG!, the nearest entrance snapped shut. The adjacent entrances slammed closed one by one, faster and faster, until the entire outer wall of the maze had become a single solid face.

"There, that should do it!" Kerberos shouted excitedly. "Now you've got it cornered!"

"Has she?" asked JOKER as it popped its head through the wall. "You didn't think I'd be stupid enough to lay a trap for MYSELF, did you?"

"Waaaaaaaaa!" cried Sakura. "I forgot about THROUGH!"

JOKER shook its head and clicked its tongue disapprovingly. "You'll never defeat me with such a limited knowledge of your powers. I can only be beaten by someone who knows EVERY SINGLE POWER." Stressing these last words, it winked at Tomoyo.

Suddenly remembering what she was supposed to be doing, Sakura made a grab at JOKER, but it leapt nimbly out of reach, sticking out its tongue and pulling down an eyelid. She flew after it, but it sped away so quickly that she couldn't keep up, leaving an ephemeral trail of stars in its wake, then came back to race circles around her as if she were standing still. Sakura quickly ducked below JOKER's path and flew back to Kerberos' side. "It's too powerful!" she whined. "I can't beat it!"

"Have a seat and rest for a while," Kerberos suggested. "You've been using a lot of magic."

Sakura gratefully collapsed onto his back and let the wings on her wand return to their normal size. As she leaned back into Tomoyo, she noticed how heavily she was breathing. "Whew! I didn't realize I was so tired!"

Suspecting that something was up, Tomoyo glanced over at JOKER again. It was taking aim with its finger-gun again. "It's going to attack!" she warned, pushing Sakura up.

Sakura didn't hesitate to pull yet another card from the deck. "SHIELD!" she shouted, erecting the barrier just in time to block the first shot. More projectiles followed at machinegun pace, hitting every part of the shield so that its outline stood out clearly. The air seemed to be a solid mass of sparks as sweat started to pour down Sakura's face.

"Sakura, are you okay?" called Kerberos. "I can try to block with my wings if you need a rest."

"No, I'm fine," said Sakura, as a spark penetrated the shield, scratching her cheek as it passed.

Tomoyo gasped. "Sakura!"

Sakura put her hand to her cheek and pulled it back with blood on her fingers. "I'm trying, Tomoyo. I don't know how much longer I can keep this shield up. It's really late, and I haven't gotten any sleep...." Three more shots passed through the shield, two going over Sakura's head while the third took off the ends of a few strands of Tomoyo's hair. Kerberos' wing quickly rose to block any more shots that might make it past Sakura's defense, but he winced at each impact.

"Sakura!" Tomoyo cried again.

"Tomoyo... I'm sorry. I can't protect you any longer." Sakura slumped and nearly let the wand slip from her fingers. Tomoyo grabbed her by the shoulders to support her as the shield vanished. The barrage of shots from JOKER ceased at the same moment, leaving the battlefield eerily calm.

"Sakura," Tomoyo whispered to the girl in her arms. "I can't let you do this alone. There must be some way I can help you."

"You've already done enough," replied Sakura. "It's my magic we're fighting. I have to beat it."

"I'm sure there's something I can do," Tomoyo insisted. "I've helped you before."

"We couldn't have captured SONG without you," agreed Kerberos.

SONG.... The card flashed in Tomoyo's head. It had been the final card in her reading; the card that indicated her best course of action. And JOKER hadn't used its power yet either, not that it mattered now... but maybe there was still some part of it that wanted to make her happy. And if it would give Sakura time to recover, she would try anything. "Hold on, Sakura," she said. "I think I know what to do." She looked at JOKER, which was sitting in the air expectantly, and let the words and tune come to her as she stroked her hand through Sakura's hair, singing encouragement to her best friend.

"My friend, flying in the sky/If you fly very high, you could touch the sun./Won't you bring a little bit back with you?/I want to hold the warm sunlight in my hand."

She paused to see how JOKER was reacting, and noticed that it was standing up straight in the air, puffing out its chest like an opera singer. She suppressed a chuckle at the comical sight and launched into another verse, mimicking the tune of the first verse but changing the words just a bit. JOKER flawlessly added its harmony in Tomoyo's voice without missing a note.

"My friend, flying in the sky/If you fly very high, you could touch the stars./Won't you bring a little bit back with you?/I want to hold the beautiful starlight in my hand."

Sakura's eyes were open now, and she seemed rapt in the spectacular duet. Kerberos also was flapping his wings as quietly as he could, allowing the powerful song to flow over him. Tomoyo decided on a final verse and launched into it.

"Warm sunlight, beautiful starlight/Twin lights of day and night./If I hold these two lights in my hands/I can make the whole world shine."

As the echoes of the final chord died away, Tomoyo gave Sakura a light shove. "Now's your chance, while it's still distracted," she whispered.

Sakura sleepily stood up and raised the Clow Wand, pointing it at JOKER with a vengeance. "Card created by Clow, return to the form in which you were meant to be! CLOW CARD!" A rectangular slit of light appeared at the wand's tip, and tendrils of spirit energy flowed smoothly from JOKER's body into the forming card.

Tomoyo leaned down close to Kerberos' head and whispered so that Sakura couldn't hear. "Isn't there supposed to be a magic circle at Sakura's feet?" she asked.

"They haven't appeared at all during this entire battle," replied Kerberos. "I think it has something to do with JOKER's influence, even now. I'm sure it's only allowing itself to be captured."

"Why would it do that?" asked Tomoyo.

"Like I said, it likes to show off."

As Tomoyo straightened up, JOKER swooped in close, still trailing ropes of spirit energy. "By the way, Tomoyo," it said, "there's one more thing I have to ask you before I'm sealed away."

Tomoyo shivered involuntarily. "What is it?"

JOKER smiled. "Now that your troubles are all over... how do you feel?"

"I'm not sure what you mean," said Tomoyo.

"Think about all the time you got to spend with Sakura," JOKER clarified. "Think about the adventures you got to have, and the danger you lived through, and the thrill of being able to capture your very own Clow Card. Now that the danger is over, and all you have left are your memories, did you have a good time?"

The question gave Tomoyo pause. She'd considered the entire ordeal to be miserable until that very moment, but as she thought back over the previous days, it was the happy moments, the hugs and thrills of small victories, that stood out in her mind. And Sakura seemed to be relishing the capture, even as tired as she was. "I suppose I did," she admitted.

JOKER twirled happily in the air. "Then my job is done. I've granted your one wish!"

"One wish?" Tomoyo asked, confused. "But you've been granting all of my wishes all along!"

"That was just the method I chose to grant your deepest wish," replied JOKER. "There was one thing you truly wanted all along, and that is what I gave you: an adventure!"

"An adventure?" Tomoyo repeated incredulously.

JOKER nodded. "Yep. You used to enjoy going on adventures with Sakura while she captured Clow Cards, and you wanted to have the chance to do it again. So I gave you that chance." It crossed its arms and frowned. "Although this would all have been a lot simpler if you'd just used the power of SONG to cancel the power of SILENT."

Tomoyo blushed. "I didn't think of that."

JOKER shrugged. "This ending was more exciting anyway. And I enjoyed having the chance to stretch my legs after being cooped up for so many years." It demonstratively stretched its limbs, incidentally letting its nearest arm be drawn completely into the card. "So, I bid you adieu. Perhaps, one day, we'll have another adventure together." With that, it tipped its hat with a bow and leapt into the card.

Sakura gratefully took the card, sat down on Kerberos' back, and sighed. "At last."

Tomoyo patted her shoulder. "Well done, Sakura! We won!"

Suddenly, the card leapt out of Sakura's hand and JOKER reappeared. "Oh, one more thing. I nearly forgot the most important part!"

Sakura groaned in exasperation. "What now?"

JOKER reached behind its back and produced a video camera. "I thought you might like a record of your adventure together. It's not the same quality work as Tomoyo's, but it's got all your best moments."

Tomoyo accepted the camera and slid the strap over her shoulder. "Thank you, JOKER!" On impulse, she stretched out her arms to give the tamed card a hug.

JOKER slid right through her arms and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Keep your innocent spirit, Tomoyo," it whispered. "As long as you have that, I'll always be with you." With a POP!, it returned to card form and flew right into Tomoyo's hand.

Kerberos snorted. "Showoff."

"Tomoyo, you're blushing," Sakura alerted her friend.

Tomoyo's hand rose to her cheek, which was unusually warm. "JOKER...." she whispered.

"I think that was her first kiss," said Kerberos with a wink.

"Oh," said Sakura, turning away from Tomoyo. "Then I'd better not say anything about it."

"That might be best," agreed Kerberos. "She's been through quite a bit over these past few days. I'm sure she has a lot to think about."

Sakura nodded, then yawned. "Sleepy..." she mumbled as she leaned back. Tomoyo cradled her and pulled her into a horizontal position, letting her fall asleep.

"We'd better take her home," said Kerberos. "She'll be back to normal after a few days' rest."

Tomoyo nodded, studying Sakura's sleeping face. "She's so cute. I can't let this moment go to waste." She lifted the camera to her eye and aimed it at Sakura, filming Sakura in all her slumbering glory.

A giant bead of sweat ran down the back of Kerberos' head. "You can't be serious."

"Sakura's sleeping face will make a wonderful addition to my collection," said Tomoyo. "It's too bad Li isn't here to see it. I'm sure he would enjoy it."

Kerberos chuckled. "The kid's gonna be pretty miffed that we went and captured JOKER without him. Oh well. He'll live."

Tomoyo echoed Kerberos' chuckle, finishing with a wide yawn. "I'd forgotten how late it was." Turning the camera off, she curled up, lying across Sakura with the JOKER card clutched to her chest, and immediately fell asleep.

Kerberos grinned to himself. "They've both had a long day," he whispered. "They've earned a nice long nap." With that, he banked in his flight and set a course for the Kinomoto house.  


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Hope you enjoyed the story! Be sure to check out the 52 Curses archive on my webpage (check my bio for the link) for story-related extras, including the lyrics and music of Tomoyo's Song, and watch for an omake sometime soon. Thanks for reading!  


  



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